Way over-rated

Rating: 4/10 (19 February 2004)

This is one of those slow-paced movies with a lot more atmosphere than substance. This is not necessarily a bad thing. If you want to see a truly wonderful atmospheric, slow-paced movie, go see Scarlett Johansson's other recent movie, Girl with a Pearl Earring. But Lost in Translation just doesn't work for me. Not much happens. There isn't much dialog and what little dialog there is comes across as bland and uninteresting. Despite all the hype, Bill Murray sleepwalks through his role. As for Johansson, she was much better in Ghost World and Pearl Earring. The May-September relationship between the two does have a kind of poignant bitter-sweetness, but it doesn't go anywhere. They just walk around Tokyo for a few days, not saying much to each other (and that's about all that happens in the movie). The director, Sophia Coppola, manages to make the Tokyo look really unexciting, not a place you would care to visit. The end result is a thoroughly boring movie – you can walk out half way through and not miss much. I give it 4 out of 10.