ms. coppola atones for her sins

Rating: 7/10 (23 February 2004)

just when i was prepared to spend the remainder of my life hating and villifying sofia coppola for almost single-handedly destroying the "godfather" trilogy, along comes "lost in translation" and just about all is forgiven...very original (autobiographical?) screenplay, neat cinematography, and a couple of quietly underplayed performances from murray and johannson...a character study that compels the viewer to fill in a lot of blanks...no grand flourishes, very little exposition and if you're looking for big action or belly laughs, you've come to the wrong place...a little overhyped? maybe...but this is a very solid directorial effort...given this and "the virgin suicides", i'm getting real close to absolving francis ford's daughter for (m)ucking up those scenes with andy garcia in "g-3"...