Found, a cute little love story

Rating: Null/10 (17 February 2004)

I thought this was a low-key character-driven drama with a humorous overtone which involved two Americans who just happened to meet in a luxury Tokyo hotel. Bill Murray as the declining film star and Scarlett Johansson as the young woman with the world at her feet and no idea what to do with it are believable and sympathetic (especially compared, say, with their spouses). Japan and the Japanese are merely the background, and really only have the function of emphasising the character's isolation. It could equally have been set in Zurich, or Auckland Hence I find the attack on the film as anti-Japanese as quite irrelevant. Much of the film takes place in the confines of the Tokyo Park Hyatt, which is about as Japanese an institution as McDonalds. I did think the call-girl ordered up by Bill's hosts (a whisky manufacturer) pretty funny though, not because she was Japanese, but because of their different expectations.
Sofia Coppola is good at teasing out nuances in her characters (see eg `Virgin Suicides'), and Bill Murray has never been better in showing the sad side of a comic. Scarlett, as the confused Yale philosophy major, got the tone just right. The story itself doesn't amount to a lot, but we understand them well enough at the end. This is not a film for everyone, so if you must have at least three car crashes before the opening credits, don't go. But if you don't mind a meandering approach to affairs of the heart, it's OK.