fantastic

Rating: 10/10 (5 October 2003)

**** brilliant. so many directors nowadays find it necessary to pace a movie as if it were a 100 meter race, and in so doing are apt to miss out on potentially poignant scenes. sofia coppola is not one of those directors. she skillfully allows the movie to unfold at a natural pace, and though the audience knows murray and johansson are to spend much of the movie as companions, their introductions and subsequent friendship are in no way forced. how many movies would have an unspoken moment in a crowded elevator be the first encounter between the main characters? or in how many films would bob harris (murray) NOT go hit on the nubile young woman who sent him a drink in the bar? together with RUSHMORE, this is murray's best work, and after the wonderful GHOST WORLD, johansson proves not just to be a wonderful screen presence, but also a shrewd 'chooser-of-roles,' for lack of a better term. i hope this movie does not fall through the cracks and gains a wide audience, it deserves it. two notes: those under 25 who are not especially introspective or do not particularly plan for the future will probably get nothing from this film beyond laughing at japanese people (which i did not feel i was doing, i was laughing at the difference between cultures, not at the culture itself). also, if you love cityscapes and flyover type views of cities, go see this movie simply for the shots of tokyo, they are simply breathtaking.