LOST IN TRANSLATION
Released: September 19, 2003
This is a story of lonliness in a crowded world. You could be surrounded by hundreds of people and yet be utterly isolated. That's how both Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) and Bob Harris (Bill Murray) feel at the start of Sofia Coppola's third film in the director's chair. Bob is an American movie star reduced to the sunset career years of travelling to Tokyo to shoot a whiskey commercial, while Charlotte is a young woman tagging along with her workaholic photographer husband (Giovanni Ribisi). Unable to sleep, Bob and Charlotte cross paths one night in the luxury hotel bar. This chance meeting soon beomces a surprising friendship. Bob is the older, jaded and world-weary man while Charlotte is the younger, just-married woman who has yet to stake out her own path living in the shadow of her neglectful husband. Had the two not met in Tokyo during this period of mutual isolation, would they have hooked up back in the US? This isn't a blueprint for love and happiness however. Both Bob and Charlotte are married yet not really all that happy. Despite their age difference, the pair end up spending several days exploring the city and meeting its people. The main thing to keep in mind is that this is not a typical Hollywood movie which would be compelled to have the Murray character bed the Johannson character. In "Lost In Translation", this impromptu couple is brought together simply by the comfort of friendship. They both know that once their trips are over, they must go home to their respective lives. The movie is particularly genuine at the end where Murray's Bob character whispers a few words to Johannson's Charlotte. What does he say? That's for you to decide. Bill Murray is fantastic here, restrained from his usual bigger-than-life performances, proving himself to be one the original "Saturday Night Live" cast members who actually can sustain a career in film and do so with dignity as he ages (Dan Ackroyd is another). Johannson is simply amazing. Not only is she a mere 18 years old, she is strikingly gorgeous. A close up shot of her butt at the very start of the film certainly got MY attention! She's a star. I first saw her in Robert Redford's "The Horse Whisperer" in 1998. Since then she's picked very good projects including "Ghost World", The Coen brother's "The Man Who Wasn't There" and "An American Rhapsody" among them. Her career in movies is secured. Two actors at their best and a director who, despite her famous father Francis Ford Coppola, is making really good cinema (her 1999 flick "The Virgin Suicides" with Kirsten Dunst and Kathleen Turner is well worth exploring. The soundtrack for "Lost In Translation" is also very good, featuring the first new material from My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields in over a decade. It's sad that movies like this aren't embraced by the public. This is where the real movie magic happens.
102 Minutes
Focus Features