Lost in Translation

It's very interesting to see all of the ratings that Lost In Translation received in different countries. In Canada it is only PG, while in America it's rated R! And really, the only explanation for this is a brief scene at a strip joint that shows some nudity. I really look down on that R rating because Lost In Translation is a good-hearted film that should be enjoyed by all ages. Notice how during the 2003 Oscar season two films played the "only one special effect: the effect on the audience" card; one being this film and the other being Mystic River. Both are great films, both are rated R in the U.S., but only one of them can carry along its story without brutal murders.

So what can I say about Lost In Translation that hasn't been said a million times already? It's all true. It's subtle, down-to-earth, and allows the audience to observe and relate to the characters, Bob and Charlotte. Both of them have a life crisis to deal with, and I guess if you're thousands and thousands of miles away from your problems it makes it easier to take an objective look at them, even if they do follow you. Bob and Charlotte confide in each other and develop a relationship. That's what it's all about, and every scene is precious. It's a real and true to life kind of film. We never hear the lines: "Oh, Charlotte, I'm so glad I went to Japan. You've changed my life in such a profound way and you'll always be in my heart." That's because that just isn't the way it goes in real life. The feeling is there, the characters know it, the audience knows it, so it has to be left at that.

So, yeah, I love this movie. It's clearly the highlight of Bill Murray's career and marks the perfect first real stand-out in Scarlett Johanson's. It's so rare to see a movie that only has an interest in its characters (and only two of them, at that!) and makes them so charming, lovable, and familiar. This is a great example of non-Hollywood Hollywood films: the well-known actors and producers going to the roots of independent film-making. In an age where half the movies out there are packed with CGI, this is refreshing to see.

My rating: 10/10

Lost in Translation details the kind of wayward search for human connection many of us go through in life, sometimes young, sometimes old, or following a traumatic event. It's the time in our lives when we feel the most lost, and truthfully, many of us don't want answers as to how to better our situation, but just want somebody to go along for the ride. We'd like to find someone to empathize with, embrace on a frequent basis, and know that somebody cares about us and our wayward ways and to reciprocate such feelings.

With this, Sofia Coppola writes and directs a film about that search for human connection and what it can exactly amount to. We are immediately introduced to Bob Harris (Bill Murray), an older American movie star who travels to Tokyo to film an advertisement for Suntory whiskey. Bob has found himself in the mix of a souring marriage and no real close friends, and it is in Tokyo where Bob sinks deeper and deeper into a midlife crisis. Meanwhile, we also meet Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson), a college graduate whose husband John (Giovanni Ribisi) is starting to lose interest in her in favor of all the models he works with.

Later on, Bob and Charlotte finally meet and immediately recognize each others unfortunate situation. They spend sporadic amounts of time together, often not talking and simply speaking in fragmented sentences and lying next to one another. They aren't very concerned with long conversation; they simply let their lethargy in their current situations carry their relationship along.

Over time, sexual tension between the two builds, though both of them are still caught in relationships, regardless of how mediocre they are. In addition, neither of them are quite sure how to conjure intimacy with one another. The two are much more in tune with being static beings and platonic. This is one of the few dramas I can recall that allows the presence of the characters to take over rather than their actions. Coppola sits back and watches with a keen eye and a sense of mannered restraint how Bob and Charlotte get close over the course of their visit in Tokyo.

Coppola's interest lies in Bob and Charlotte's situation moreso than the progression of their relationship, which is a difficult thing to pull off in film without working with more of an impressionistic style. The brushstrokes Coppola paints this story in are more or less minimal, but they craft just enough out of a little so that we can recognize these characters, their feelings, and their current state. They have transcended living life into simply existing within it, rarely getting excited and scarcely finding any kind of mutual contentment.

Again, in these situations, all you need is another soul who feels the same way you do, and in this case, that's bottled up angst and complete and total uncertainty. The title represents a lot of things and the cultural gap Bob and Charlotte experience is only a small part of it; these two souls are lost within the translation of life. Life has keep going and two formerly active people who could keep up with the bustle have let it all pass by, letting sadness dominate their lives and fogginess encapsulate the remnants of the future. The translation lost is within the characters here, and that's sometimes scarier than not speaking the same language of the community.

The only issue that arises from this is that we get the impression that Coppola either doesn't understand Japanese culture or simply doesn't want to, what with the abundance of cheap stereotypes and archetypal Japanese characters played for nothing but laughs here. Coppola opens by ostensibly getting most out of her way, thankfully, however, through the use of subtle humor, but sporadically doubles back to throw in another jab or two, which can briefly throw the film out of whack. It reminds me of when a really artsy film wants to try and pander and connect with the audience when it thinks it has lot them, and, as shown here amidst others, the action has the opposite effect.

However, Murray and Johansson craft wonderful, low-key chemistry here. Murray's subtle sarcasm and overall cynicism are downplayed but in force here, as he employs facial expressions that speak louder than words could. He fully shows how he can be a hilarious comic presence and a fascinating, real dramatic presence and merge the two in one project, proving nothing but great range and ability on his behalf. Johansson, who was only eighteen during the time this was being filmed, bears mannerisms and a self-assured aura that would be more expected from someone ten years older than her. Such lofty material is presented and she handles the task of not being too theatrical or obvious very well, and it's a performance that requires both actors to place a reliance on their body language and facial expressions. This was by no means an easy role for Johansson, yet she breaks out with it and becomes a force all her own.

Lost in Translation details a difficult time in a person's life and, in the process, doesn't sugarcoat it. The lack of human connection and the feelings of hopelessness, regardless of short-term or long-term, are debilitating to a person, and this film goes on to show to reiterate my idea about life: if we didn't have at least one of these things - a passion, a good relationship with family, or close friends and people to connect with - we would jump out a window.

Starring: Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Giovanna Ribisi, and Anna Faris. Directed by: Sofia Coppola.

Being in a profession where there is constant noise, I enjoyed this movie for a very odd reason. The characters are pulling away from a hyped up society, away from a world, much of which is based on needless, trivial noise. Everywhere they go there is more numbing action. Watching the director of the commercial gyrating, trying to act like a real film director, despite the fact that they are doing a 30 second liquor commercial, typifies some of what this movie is about, a world where people are worn into the ground by a type A culture that is as vapid and unnecessary as we can imagine. I thought the Bill Murray character developed tremendously. While this trip to Japan was excruciatingly dull (money isn't everything), I believe that he began to see things he hadn't seen before. I liked that while he was struggling with his marriage, the crises were simple, day to day things that living brings to us. The young woman he meets shows through a whimsical kindness, that he is worth something. She is refreshing to look at an to be with. He, like many middle aged men, has self doubts. Because she has a sense of purity and can talk to him honestly about her world and his, he should go back to his life a little more sustained.

Few movies make you THINK long after they end. That's OK. Movies are supposed to entertain and most do so without requiring even one ounce of thought. It's sad that maybe some of you out there prefer movies- and life- that way. Thankfully this movie is all about thinking and feeling. This is not a chick flick. It's a human experience flick.

This film examines and lays bare the intricacies of love, life and loneliness; the claustrophobia, insomnia and disorientation of traveling to a foreign country. The loneliness that creeps in after life's normality starts to wear thin. The spark of promise that meeting someone new brings. This is what life is about and what this film so flawlessly portrays.

How many of you can relate to and have actually been that guy/girl on business, in the hotel in some foreign city, happily married yet feeling alone and beaten by life's banality? How many of us have been tempted in that very situation, to stray from the confines of moral adherence for the lure of a forbidden, if fleeting, joy? How many have felt that tingle- that spark- when a stranger smiles and you think, "you know, in another life..."? Change the time, place and all of us have been there whether we admit it or not. Maybe single people don't get this movie; maybe it's for those of us who have walked down that aisle and are wiser to the realities of life.

The characters here are true. Their dialog is true. The setting is true. It's all tirelessly fascinating because we can all relate to it and it involves us in a way that most movies do not. We find ourselves drawn to every moment these two experience together and apart. We are intrigued by the glances, nuances and words they share.

Johanssen is brilliant and beautiful as the lonely, young wife questioning her marriage. Her beauty is classic, not necessarily sexual, though she is obviously alluring in this role. Her bee-stung lips, perfect body and haunting eyes may have something to do with that. Still she's more sophisticated beauty than mindless hottie, even at 19. This is a role tailor-made for her. It could never have been Reese Witherspoon or Jessica Alba or - God forbid- Jessica Simpson, or anybody else in that realm.

Murray is simply at his best. He does "exasperated, middle-aged and depressed" better than most, with his receding hairline and frumpy body. You really believe that these two could connect in a physical and emotional way, as remote as that may seem on the surface. What other 50-something could ever be believed to be appealing to a young woman as pretty as Charlotte? That's a tough chemistry to fake and I can't think of a more perfect pair. What drives them to this attraction is what's intriguing to watch.

Go see this. Turn off your "Major Blockbuster-Tom Cruise-Action-Pop Culture Catch Phrase-Big Star" mind and tune in with a more searching self. Watch this with your soul and heart, not your eyes. If you look deeper than the surface you'll find yourself moved by the whole experience. Yes, it's THAT good.

It is not easy to talk about "Lost in Translation". Sofia Coppola's second film as a director is in part about things we never talk about. While its two protagonists try to find mutual solace in each other, their silence is as expressive as their words. This is a film that believes that an individual can have a valuable relationship with someone else without becoming part of that person's life. At 19 years of age, I am not married but I can understand pretty well that it is easier for a stranger with whom you share a moment in the bar or corridor to understand your problems better than your husband or wife. Here is an extract from Roger Ebert's great review of the film: "We all need to talk about metaphysics, but those who know us well want details and specifics; strangers allow us to operate more vaguely on a cosmic scale. When the talk occurs between two people who could plausibly have sex together, it gathers a special charge: you can only say "I feel like I've known you for years" to someone you have not known for years."

In this marvellous story, the two lonely individuals that merge the illusions of what they have and what they could have are two Americans. The emotional refuge, Tokyo. We have Bob Harris (Bill Murray), and actor in his fifties who was once a star, and is now supplementing his incomes with the recording of a whisky commercial. On the other side of the telephone, a frightening reality: his wife, his sons, and the mission of choosing the right material for heaven knows what part of the house. When we consider Bob's situation, we realise that Lost in Translation is also a meditation on the misery of fame. Certainly fame has great (perhaps greater than disadvantages) advantages but then there are the obligations, the expectations...

We also have Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson), a woman in her twenties who is accompanying her husband, a photographer addicted to work, on a business trip. But it could said it is as if she is alone anyway. Her world, just like Bob's, is reduced to strange days in the bedroom, the corridors, the hotel's swimming pool, and the bar, the perfect destination for victims of sleeplessness and wounded soul. The bar is the place Bob and Charlotte meet for the first time. They talk, little, but just enough. Once their dislike for parts of their lives are established, they begin sharing times that feel dead to be able to feel alive.

Bob and Charlotte are souls in transition for whom, surrounded and confused by exotic rituals, and a different language, allows them a moment to lose their identities. Both characters provoke similar feelings form different experiences. There are no kisses or crazy nights between them, but only a shared intimacy in which a night out, a walk in the streets, a session of karaoke becomes a powerful expression of their affection an complicity. The relationship we all await only happens in our minds and the protagonists, whom we are not allowed to know everything they say and desire. Tokyo metaphorically speaking is the third character in the film. The bright colours, the noise of the city...just everything evokes the various spiritual awakenings of the characters.

It ends on a perfect note leaving the relationship of the characters undecided. A rare gem in modern day cinema.