The Best Picture (so far) of 2003 - Let the Oscar race begin! Triumphant! Marvelous Murray!

Rating: Null/10 (16 September 2003)

LOST IN TRANSLATION (2003) **** Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Giovanni Ribisi, Anna Faris. Filmmaker Sofia Coppola hits a grandslam in her sophomoric outing about a movie star, Bob Harris (Murray in arguably his finest work to date and should FINALLY nab an Oscar nomination), who travels to Tokyo to shoot a $2M ad for whiskey while having moments of self-doubt about his career plateauing, his family not-really-missing him and life in general with hilarious and surprisingly poignant moments of near epiphanies of unbridled joy when he meets his true soul mate, Charlotte (the beguilingly lovely and also Academy Award worthy Johansson)  a bored newlywed college grad  tagging along with her neglectful photog hubby (Ribisi)  in the same deluxe hotel they're visiting. Funny, witty and reflective with some deliberate slow-pacings, wonderful moments of utter stillness and Murray's trademark asides albeit in extreme low-key mannerisms.
True chemistry between the leads makes this a unique and unlikely  romantic comedy that has you from the moment he catches her profile in a crowded elevator. Coppola  who wrote and directed  truly has become an exceptionally talented and skillful filmmaker in allowing her actors some beautiful moments of heartbreak and hilarity (best summed in the karaoke sequences when a less assured director would've poked Murray's Nick, The Lounge Singer at full tilt; wisely he just comes across as tone deaf). Kudos to Faris as an inane, self-absorbed starlet also holing up in the hotel for some laugh-out-loud idiocy. Fluid and gorgeous cinematography Lance Acord captures the exotic and enticing metropolis in all its foreign glory. If the Academy has any good sense (I know it'd be a miracle) it would be a grand sweep : Actor, Actress, Film, Screenplay, Cinematography and of course Director. The year's best film (thus far). Spoiler: if you don't shed a tear of joy/melancholy by the film's final moments you my friend are made of stone.