The Best Part is Missing

Rating: 7/10 (21 February 2004)

This could have been a very funny movie, a la Alberto Sordi's "Un americano a Roma" or his "Un italiano in America", with all the silly hilarity inherent in an ethnocentric character finding himself in a foreign land. But no, Sofia Coppola wanted to go for the kind of sappy relationship movie that gets Oscar consideration--she succeeded, of course, but at the cost of shedding a good deal of the movie's comedic potential. For those of you who see this movie on DVD, not to be missed among the bonus extras is the spectacularly funny, full-length version of "Bob Harris'" appearance on "Matthew's Best Hit TV" (Matthew is absurdly touted in the movie as the "Johnny Carson of Japan",setting up the comedic scene). This scene had us rolling in the aisles(feigning, as we were, that we were watching it in a theater), and it is illustrative of what the movie could have been: a blast of a screwball comedy. And the fact that the very funniest scene was cut to the bone only shows how misguided Ms. Coppola was in her conception of this movie--trying to take it in a "serious" direction when neither the script nor Bill Murray's acting could possibly sustain that orientation. Again, well worth the cost of the DVD rental just to catch the full version of the interview on "Matthew's Best Hit TV."