(Un)Translating Love

Rating: Null/10 (7 March 2004)

'Lost in Translation' has received considerable critical acclaim since its release in the US in 2003. The film has also attracted large audience numbers in that country and here in Australia, as well as 800-plus reviews here on IMDB. So what's it all about? Is it worth the hype?
The movie is set in Tokyo. Bill Murray plays Bill Harris, a middle-aged film star who has forsaken artistically satisfying work to shoot a whisky ad in the city. He's trapped in a dull
marriage, with a career that's going nowhere. Scarlet Johansson plays Charlotte, a beautiful young woman trapped in a loveless marriage to a trendy, workaholic photographer and unable to work out what to do with her life post-college.

These two lonely, aimless souls meet in a hotel bar. At first, their relationship consists merely of "hello's" and smiles over scotches and cigarettes. Then Charlotte's husband goes away on an assignment, and they're thrust together for several days...
The leads are brilliant, and their chemistry is beautifully understated. They wonderfully play out a passion that is always there, in conversations, smiles and songs (Murray's drunken rendition of Roxy Music's 'More than This' is hilarious and tragic), but must be repressed due to their life circumstances. They're both married, there's an age difference, and the viewer is
haunted throughout the film by the knowledge that they will have to eventually separate into the huge, crowded city that is Tokyo. There are no hyped-up Hollywood sex scenes here, just two lost souls reaching out for each other, never quite gripping the other until the ending - and even then ...
I was also very interested by the idea of translating love. The love between Bill and Charlotte is lost in translation, as are so many of their exchanges with the Tokyo locals. Admittedly, though, this theme does suggest the Western bias of the film. Much of the movie's humour is devoted to the American's lack of understanding of the local dialect, i.e. Murray driven to confusion by a fast- talking Japanese filmmaker. This is not helped by the fact that the major characters in the film are American. The Japanese actors are relegated to bit parts, usually as characters who serve Murray's character (make-up artists, photographers, and one truly obnoxious TV host).
That said, Lost in Translation was otherwise a wonderfully written, subtle and moving film that has the power to elicit tears and laughter, and will remain in the viewer's mind long after they have left
the cinema.