Cinematic masterpiece: So beautiful it hurts

Rating: 10/10 (9 January 2004)

"Lost in Translation" is what the art of moving pictures was created for. This is a trip unlike anything you've rarely taken before. Sofia Coppola actually makes you feel more in awe of the very real city of Tokyo than Peter Jackson does with his imaginative Middle Earth! Maybe because she manages to get under our skins, really conveying the very sad feeling of being... lost. But thankfully she sprinkles it with wonderful elements of comedy. Not surprisingly she wrote the screenplay with Bill Murray in mind, and he truly delivers the part of his life. Scarlett Johansson is devastatingly beautiful and together they make one of the oddest and wonderful screen-couples you will ever see. So all-ready from the get-go this movie has a lot of great things going for it.
"Lost in Translation" would however not be what it is if it had not been for the very keen eye of Sofia Coppala. Her observations of the human spirit and everything Tokyo'ish borders on uncanny. The daughter of Francis Ford Coppola actually leaves you with an extreme gratitude to the invention of cinema, just like her father did with his "Godfather"-movies three decades ago.
Probably never before has a tale of two people lost in the big city seemed so fascinating on the big screen. Emphasis on BIG SCREEN because this is the only way to experience "Lost in Translation". This is one of those movies that could loose much of it's impact on a TV-set.
When the movie was over I had bonded with Murray and Johansson's characters so much I felt really sad having to leave their company. Hopefully I will see them back together again at the next Academy Awards ceremony, for this movie should receive several nominations.
It is that good, and then some.