One Of The Best Films Ever Made

Rating: 10/10 (16 September 2012)

Lost in Translation is a film written and directed by Sofia Coppola. Her second feature film, after The Virgin Suicides, it stars Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson. The film revolves around an aging actor named Bob Harris (Murray) and a recent college graduate named Charlotte (Johansson) who develop a rapport after a chance meeting in a Tokyo hotel. The movie explores themes of loneliness, alienation, insomnia, existential ennui and culture shock against the backdrop of a modern Japanese city.
Bob Harris is a well-known American actor whose career has gone into a tailspin; needing work, he takes a very large fee to appear in a commercial for Japanese whiskey to be shot in Tokyo. Feeling no small degree of culture shock in Japan, Bob spends most of his non-working hours at his hotel, where he meets Charlotte at the bar. Twentysomething Charlotte is married to John, a successful photographer who is in Tokyo on an assignment, leaving her to while away her time while he works. Beyond their shared bemusement and confusion with the sights and sounds of contemporary Tokyo, Bob and Charlotte share a similar dissatisfaction with their lives; the spark has gone out of Bob's marriage, and he's become disillusioned with his career. Meanwhile, Charlotte is puzzled with how much John has changed in their two years of marriage, while she's been unable to launch a creative career of her own. Bob and Charlotte become fast friends, and as they explore Tokyo, they begin to wonder if their sudden friendship might be growing into something more.
A relationship picture with elegant connective tissue; it's brittle and real, focused on the nuances of body language and unspoken desire, while indulging in a cheeky bit of knowing absurdity when the mood strikes.This exhibit Coppola's talent as a director.This picture in itself is so good that it compensated whatever mess she created when she made The Godfather Part III.Anyway,the film effectively balances humor and subtle pathos as it had a moving, melancholy story that is also highlighted by the great showcase of talent for both Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson.In summary,Lost In Translation is one of the best films ever made.