take the time to relax yourself a little with this little pearl

Rating: 9/10 (9 December 2006)

In 1999 Sofia Coppola made a breakthrough in the landscape of North-American cinema with "the Virgin Suicides" in which she walled up 5 lovely female teenagers in silence due to their severe parents and notably their mother. 4 years later, Francis Ford's daughter moves to Tokyo in Japan but keeps the theme of loneliness to give it to her two lost main characters as a means to assess their lives.
So, Tokyo constitutes the backdrop for this bitter story. It's a city brimming with lights and people and from a Western standpoint, one often imagines the image of an uptight city. Sofia Coppola rather showcases us a laid-back, carefree vision in which the modernism of the city symbolized by a highly advanced technology and tall buildings is next to a preservation of old traditions and customs. Japan has a strong power of fascination on Western society and I've heard several times some of my peers that they would love to go there. If their dreams come true one day, it is highly likely that they will feel puzzled on the first days of their stay, just like Bob Harris (Bill Murray) and Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson). The former is a prestigious, seasoned actor who came to Tokyo to pocket a few millions of dollars for a whiskey brand while the latter is a fresh philosophy graduate from Yale who hurriedly married a young photographer. Both are somewhat jettisoned by their native close relatives. Both wind up in a four-star hotel amid a country with a culture and a language they don't understand and both are sleepless due to jet lag and in prey to a deep inner turmoil. Nothing at first lets suggest the success of this May-to-December relation but each of them found a soul mate to provide them solace and relief. Charlotte doesn't know what to do with her life but perceives Bob as a solid rock while Bob who is at wits' end considers Charlotte as a reminder of his youth.
From the arrival of the two heroes in the chic hotel to their first moments together to their exploration of the city through the mob, colorful places and with their mutual support, Sofia Coppola reused a formula which proved its worth in her precedent work and here it shines again to give astounding results. Everything in her directing breathes delicacy, fragility and she favors a low-key cinematographic language. So it entails a sort of complicity with her two leads. A good pack of her sequences rings thoroughly true like for example when Charlotte rings her mother to tell her her first day in Tokyo. Then, the fax and the telephone are the sole means of communication with their native country for her two heroes and lets the audience suggest the state of their own relationships, especially with Bob whose private life and particularly his marriage goes unravel. Looks, gestures have a big intensity while the suggested has a meaty part in the dialogs. To make the dish more appealing, the female filmmaker had also recourse to a discreet humor like when Bob tries to follow the Japanese director's instructions through the interpreter. Sofia Coppola was right not to steer her film towards a well-worn master plan which would have seen the two characters almost at once in each other's arms. Actually, I must admit that I didn't think of this perspective during the major part of the film. It's much more novel to see two human beings finding their bearings in the throes of a whirlpool shrouding a noisy city and a seemingly indecipherable culture that they timidly tame.
The evocative original soundtrack is in perfect adequacy with the images and was discerningly chosen. The lyrics of "More Than This" by Roxy Music could apply to Bob (you have to see his performance on a karaoke) and Charlotte. Specialists of noise such as "My Bloody Valentine" and "the Jesus and Mary Chain" are a perfect musical illustration of the urban chaos in which the two characters happily wrestle.
This is also Bill Murray's most ground-breaking role since "Groundhog Day" (1993). Like in this ingenious comedy, he acts a cynical man who eventually transmits joy and happiness to the ones he meets. Here his deadpan humor and his sense of restraint could justify the screening of the film. Beside him, Scarlett Johansson epitomizes grace and fragility. This trip to Tokyo was bracing for them and also for the viewer. This prizewinning indie remains etched on his or her memory and this is one to ponder.