A Lasting Embrace

Rating: 8/10 (27 January 2005)

Two Americans, Bob (B. Murray) and Charlotte (S. Johansson), are meeting in Tokyo and sharing things that connect them: Insomnia. Loneliness. And words that both understand by exchanging looks.
"Lost in Translation" is melancholic and evokes unspoken soft feelings in pictures that are unfortunately too rare. Pictures of loneliness and restlessness. Interior pain and loss. Pictures of empty, rumple beds and evacuated rooms where only a distant sound of a buzzing shaver is indicating human presence.
Unfortunately those are rare moments, like I said. The film expects more than just the old-fashioned, simple camera work of Lance Acord. And in some scenes Coppola uses cheapest stereotyped ideas of the modern Japanese culture (gambling houses, karaoke) which is quite annoying.
What remains are some wonderful, wonderful cinematic moments and a great Bill Murray who should be set in serious roles more often.