One of the most pleasing films in years...

Rating: 8/10 (14 September 2004)

Sofia Coppola has more than proved she's got the chops to be the next great director, and she's also proved that talent didn't skip a generation. First was "The Virgin Suicides" which I've yet to see and now "Lost in Translation" took critics by storm with this tale of alienation in a foreign country and two people connecting.
In this charming entertaining and melancholy gem, we meet Bob Harris, an ex-movie star in the United States who came to Tokyo to promote a new brand of Whiskey to get two million bucks. Bob is a man who is not only alienated in this foreign country with different customs and language barriers but it alienated in his home with a wife he barely knows and kids he hasn't seen in nearly five years.
In enters Charlotte, a young woman who's followed her husband (Giovanni Ribisi), a rising young photographer to Tokyo for a week and she's discovered she's feeling alienated by Tokyo and the language barrier, and she and her husband have very little they connect on. The two meet one night at the hotel club, and slowly but surely they connect. There's a sort of special bond the two manage to form right away and amidst their loneliness and isolation within the hotel room, they create a connection amidst the crowded streets and denizens. Receiving rave reviews and Oscar nods, Sofia Coppola not only showed that she was capable of being in the ring with Hollywood heavyweights, but Billy Murray proves once again why he's become such an icon in film.
Murray takes everything from himself and puts it all in his performances and here it's clearly evident why he's so appealing. Forget dribble like "Osmosis Jones" and "Charlie's Angels", the nonchalant, aloof, and often times blunt actor truly makes this film a masterpiece. I was stunned, just stunned at how bittersweet this tale is of two people connect because they're just so alike but paradoxes. Johannsen's character is lost in her new marriage and has no idea what she wants in life while Murray's character is lost in his old marriage and has seen it all, he just doesn't know where to go from there, so the two while aimlessly searching for something in their lives find each other amidst the cluttered, crowded, and sometimes giant city of Tokyo which becomes a character in the film, the source of their isolation.
A lot of times the two are looking from the outside in with really nothing to start from, Johannsen looks from her hotel window out onto the large city while Murray is within the population with nothing to start from, and the two are just wandering in their lives. Coppola, a gifted director shows Tokyo in all its depth and dimension: scary, humongous, sterile but comforting in the right tone. There is a beautiful scene in which the character Charlotte goes to the countryside of Tokyo watching a ceremony take place as the foliage falls around her, and it's all she really seems to do, watch everything around her happen with no real purpose. She can't find a purpose in her life and regardless of how hard she tries, she feels like an outsider, evident in scenes where she listens to her husband talking to a shallow actress played by Anna Faris who is funny in the film delivering some truly dumb but hilarious one-liners that increase the lack of depth in her character.
The character Charlotte is a bit of a riddle but she's also very likable and serene. Scarlett Johannsen who is not only sexy, plays her with much Zeal and depth; she's such a beautiful but lost person who is in touch with herself but not the world around her, in fact it's pretty much insinuated that her relationship with her husband is failing. Bill Murray is as witty and funny as he's ever been with laugh out loud scenes that flex his ability to deliver one-liners with deadpan reactions, and his knack for comedy in general including his bad tryst with a mistress, his bad luck work out on a treadmill, his hilarious guest stint on a famous Tokyo talk show, and (my favorite) his really hilarious photo shoot for whiskey (to name only a few) that just had me on the floor rolling.
Also there is a melancholy mood to the tale as the two experience mundane activities with each other that make many tender moments including karaoke, parties, sitting together, and just lying together in bed talking and bonding. The best scenes are the quietest where they just sit and stare off into space talking, it's truly symbolic of their feelings of loss and isolation they manage to melt away while seeking comfort in one another. They never truly solve anything in each other's lives, but ultimately they gain strength in the friendship they form to move on in their lives and go on to another day.
There is a particularly heartbreaking much talked about moment in the climax as Murray's character Bob is about to leave Tokyo in which he grabs Charlotte , hugs her and whispers something in her ear which causes her to cry and laugh. We never hear what he says to her, it's inaudible, and the genius in it is they leave it to the audience to discuss what he may have told her, and they leave it to our imagination because while we may have been with them for the story, the whispers are between the characters and no one else, and in the end we feel so fulfilled for having known these two characters and going on this journey with them.
Though a bit slow and lagging at times, this is an excellent top notch gem with beautiful direction courtesy of Sofia Coppola, incredible cinematography, a touching story, and great acting in part of Scarlett Johannsen and Bill Murray.
Rating: *** half out of ****