Left feeling empty, but wanting more popcorn

Rating: Null/10 (3 November 2003)

I know I'm tough to please. I am the sort that goes to a film expecting some small epiphany if not for myself, at least among the characters I'm watching, gorgeous imagery (not just a shot of a cityscape that I can see for myself if I feel like getting on the plane), at least some original dialogue, and as most literary folks, I can excuse a weak script if the characters are layered and convincing (Virgil Bliss, Breaking the Waves).

Charlotte is supposed to be smart, so why the ineffective soul searching tape? She'd have left that in Kansas, and spent far more time with the monks. And the richest question she ands up asking is, `Does it get easier?' Her face alone is smarter than any of the dialogue. In fact the only thing that really sticks with me is Scarlett Johansson's mystical gazes and soulful smile. Without her, I'd have very little to carry me through this film, aside from the petty humor which relied too much on taking jabs at the way the Japanese speak. Not that I didn't laugh at first, but after a while I started feeling guilty, and I feel bad for Bill. He's an old and talented soul who needed something more noble to say, maybe it happened in the end when he whispered (but I doubt it).
Also, the frames just dragged on. I can buy the fact that Bob's dread made time linger, and the slowness did dissipate a bit once he supposedly fell in love. But not much.
The good parts were the game room scene, several Japanese teens engaging in their own diminutive hedonistic `soul searching,' spinning around, banging on colorful buttons, jamming for his girlfriend on a video-game-powered electric guitar, etc. And okay the falling in love to Karaoke was a bit charming, and the scene where Bob is humiliated by being ordered to put on everyone else's face but his own had some value, but still, I left feeling unmoved, and frustrated that this film is getting such rave reviews. If you want a gritty, profound love story, watch the films mentioned above.