Magical

Rating: 10/10 (28 June 2008)

As of last night i have seen this film 3 times, and each time i have loved it more and more. To but it simply, i now consider this to be quite possibly one of the best films i have ever seen. It's hard to justify this opinion with words, its just something that i feel when watching it. It's magical yet real, intimate yet distant, soul-warming and heart-breaking. It's a huge mix of contrasting feelings, all contradicting one and another, and this couldn't be more fitting. It's like love, gentle but engrossing.. but perhaps that's enough about 'feelings'. More technically, the cinematography is fantastically suiting to the story, with shallow focuses creating a delicate world around the lonely protagonists who are so out of place with it. The acting is superb, Bill Murray is the best he has ever been (evoking a whole spectrum of emotion, but also making us laugh)and Scarlett Johansson.. well, she may well be the most beautiful creature ever to be put on film. Lost in Translation feels like a very personal film, as if Coppola is putting herself into these characters. One specific moment brings this to mind, when Charlotte muses about being lost in life, to paraphrase; 'I tried writing but i hate what i write, I tried photography but my pictures are so..mediocre'. This feels like a reflection of the film-maker's own frustrations (for example, being shunned out of the acting world by the harsh criticisms to The Godfather Part3), But i am very happy to say that this films is every bit as good as anything her father has made, and whats more, i even prefer it. With Lost in Translation, Coppola has truly proved that she has found her vocation. It's fresh, different and excellently made. But more importantly it's magical.