Movie Reviews

Bill Murray deserves just as much praise as he actually received last year for his performance in Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation. Murray plays Bob Harris, a fading movie-star sent to Japan to film some television commercials for brand of Japanese whiskey. We get the sense that Bob's life at home in America isn't particularly exciting, but his time in Japan is turning out to be more bewildering and confusing than exciting. Much like Jack Nicholson's turn in About Schmidt, Murray plays strongly against type, and comes up with a really honest and sincere character, while still managing to be quite funny.

Scarlett Johannson plays Charlotte, a young twenty-something who's photographer-husband (Giovanni Ribisi) has brought her along to Japan while he works on a job. Charlotte's husband mainly just acts as though he loves her (and he says he does), but it seems clear he's more than just a little bit inattentive to her needs.

Lost in Translation follows these two lonely people as they unexpectedly meet and develop a relationship with one another in a place that is completely foreign and confusing to both of them. It's a delicate type of relationship to write in a script (the age difference between the two characters is at least thirty years), but it's handled very well and comes across as feeling very real.

In a way, the film also seems to be just as much about Japan as it is about its characters. Having not much else to do while her husband is out working, Charlotte spends a lot of her time wandering around, and we follow as she takes in some really beautiful sights. The film also highlights how different Japanese culture is compared to Western culture, and much of the film's subtle humour comes from Bob attempting to navigate this void. The humour is nice in the way that it doesn't poke fun at Japan and the Japanese, but rather it pokes fun at American characters trying to comprehend the wildly different Japanese culture.

Overall, I enjoyed Lost in Translation. It's a little bit slow-moving at times, but this helps with the creation of the film's atmosphere, and I think Coppola was probably going for more of an atmosphere of loneliness and bewilderment than she was for quick dialogue and action. It's not a great film, but it's a really nice one.