Refreshing change from the usual

Rating: 9/10 (18 April 2004)

Am I the only one getting tired of Hollywood's addiction to special effects, explosions, and huge digitized battle sequences? Given the success of this film, apparently not.
In Lost in Translation, there are no action sequences. No one dies while someone else utters a pithy and callous one-liner. The aging male star and the hot young thing do not sleep together--well, actually, they do, but they don't have sex. No one does anything obscene with a pie or any other form of pastry. It doesn't even seem to have a plot in the traditional sense.
All of which makes it wonderful.
This is a film with very European sensibilities, with its slice-of-life story and seemingly out-of-place set pieces. It could have easily been made by a French director and starred Gerard Depardieu and Julie Delpy. But it was made by an American writer and director with American leads, which makes it very unusual and drew a great deal of attention to it--deservedly so. I don't know if it's a "masterpiece", but it's certainly a refreshing change of pace from the usual pap we get from Hollywood these days.

I saw Japan as a metaphor for the world here--we're all strangers in a strange land, lost and desperately trying to make some sort of connection with someone else. Big ideas like that don't get much attention in film these days, but it's good to see that they're not completely gone. 9/10.