Beautiful tone poem

Rating: 8/10 (3 November 2003)

***1/2
Sofia Coppola's lovely "Lost in Translation" provides Murray with a part that matches that of his work in "Rushmore" and is the most touching, and possibly funniest film of the year.
Murray plays a washed up actor sentenced to perform in commercials for a Japanese whisky company for the price of 2 million dollars. Johannsen plays a fresh out of Yale, young, married woman accompanying her husband on a business trip, where they stay at the same hotel as Murray.

The two recognize eachother as kindred lost souls, groping for meaning where none seems to be found; and proceed to spend a week of their lives together amidst a foreign alien culture. That's the plot. Nothing more. What follows are an array of beautiful, touching meetings, particularly a bedroom encounter that is as well written as any scene in recent memory and an instant classic final scence of which the content will be hotly debated for some time.
Lost in Translation is clearly not for everyone. Those who are the fans of the familiar Hollywood product will no doubt be bored by Coppola's work here, as it relies less on plot and action than it does on tone and feeling. Recalling the work of early Truffaut, "Before Sunrise" era Richard Linklater, and in a way, Murray's own work in "Rushmore," it is career best work for everyone involved.