An American "mood film" that works (5/5)

Rating: 10/10 (20 December 2003)

In my opinion, this movie is comparable to Kar-Wai Wong's movies -- mood movies. There's not much of a plot, the story doesn't advance much, there are many little insignificant (or even boring) little slices of life in the movie, all for a purpose of capturing a mood or a feeling.
Here in "Lost in Translation", that feeling it tried to capture is the feeling of being isolated and disconnected, particularly from the person you love most (their spouses). Obviously, being lost in the Japanese culture served only as a symbolism to that feeling.
There were quite a few ppl found it offensive how the movie poked fun @ the Japanese and how stereotypical those jokes were. Well, as stereotypical as the jokes were, they felt real (if you've ever been to Japan you'd know, e.g. it's really common and acceptable for Japanese men to go to strip clubs to socialize on a weekend). The fact that you might be offended clearly shows how different YOU are from THEM. Which is the purpose of those scenes (at least in the first half). They weren't meant to be condescending. And it's critical the the story and how those aforementioned feelings parallel each other.
In the beginning our main characters only see the differences between themselves and this foreign land around them, and it was amplified multifold by the utter loneliness they already felt before they got there, which they brought with them to this land. When Bob was at the photo shoot, and poke fun of the director's English, it was clear that he's not trying to be rude, but simply trying to make himself comfortable to survive the experience. ****** It was a parallel of his relationship with his wife. ****** You can immediately see that that's pretty much what his home life is like -- his wife babbling about things that he couldn't understand (like the tiles thing), while he cracks jokes just to show that he's at least listening and wonder how he ended up in this situation in the first place.
The young Charlotte wander around Tokyo alone in many little scenes. Many viewers found those scenes boring. I believe that they serve the purpose to show that maybe she was lonely and lost, but she's still ***searching****. Looking for a purpose, looking for a outlet. She hasn't given up on life and the possibilities like Bob Harris had.
It's rather important that you understand how she felt when she was talking to her friend (her mom??) on the phone and suddenly bursted into tears spontaneously. That's the kind of loneliness she brought with her to Tokyo, and just then and there did she fully realized it.
If you don't understand nor identify with that feeling, you probably won't enjoy the movie. I do believe the movie could've better explained their situations back at home so the audience can better understand the kind of loneliness they came from. But I understand that was what Sofia Coppola trying to do here: This is a movie that captures a feeling, and often times we don't know where our feeling came from and where it's going. This is a picture with no real beginning or a real ending, it's just a mood, a small snapshot of life. It's meant to be incomplete.
As much as Charlotte is still searching, Bob is still ***hoping***. He still loves his wife. The scene where he's in the bathtub and told her "I love you" after she hung up, the fact that his wife calls her at the most inconvinient time and he still picks up, etc. She's not just a responsibility to him, he still cares about her, he just doesn't know how to anymore.
And this is what the movie ultimately is about. It's not just about 2 strangers becoming friends for a few days in a foreign country and how they touched each other. It's about them discovering life and its possibilities once again. The real hope doesn't lie between them, but in each of them with their respective partner at home.
The romance felt very convincing. It's nice to see an American movie treat this May-October romance with self-awareness and realism. They both knew the tension between them (Charlotte called him on his mid-life crisis in the first conversation they had, right off the bat). The romance is very restrained, and it emphasizes admiration and companionship rather than physical attraction. It felt just right: a little bittersweet, yet heartwarming and cute.
As a film in the mood movie genre (in Kar-Wai Wong's tradition, and Sofia Coppola's own "the Virgin Suicides"), it's plain, understated, and fully of little slices of insignificant everyday life. But it added the Hollywood touch of humor and a rather tasteful soundtrack, and rose this film above the typical Kar-Wai Wong's mood films (which I find most of them pretty boring, actually).
Ultimately, a mood movie is still a mood movie. You either feel it or you don't. You won't enjoy a mood movie if you don't identify or understand the mood it tries to capture, and it'll be just a REALLY BORING film. "Lost in Translation" is one of those type of films. Except that it had the saving grace of the humor that sprinkled all over the movie and make it enjoyable for the rest of the viewers who don't understand extreme loneliness or never been deeply touched by a stranger before.
Personally, I could identify with those feelings very much, and this is one of my favorite movies of all time.

5/5 stars!!