Sweet & Sad. Sardonic & Funny. Original & Familiar. All At the Same Time.

Rating: Null/10 (4 February 2014)

Original yet familiar, simple yet complicated, sweet yet saddening & funny yet tragic, Lost in Translation is a delicately crafted comedy-drama by Sofia Coppola & tells the story of an aged actor way past his prime & a young married woman just starting with her life, who meet & strike a wonderful chord together & covers their adventure in what is an alien environment to both of them. The film also deals with the themes of loneliness, culture shock, language barrier, insomnia & crisis with one's own life while presenting a blossoming romance between two people who are different in almost every aspect of their lives.
Wonderfully written & nicely directed by Sofia Coppola, Lost in Translation is a satirical clash of different cultures & beautifully explores the feeling of finding oneself in an environment that's completely oblivious to a newbie. Cinematography captures some facets of Japanese way of life in a sound manner, editing keeps the interest in the story alive until the very end & the music that accompanies the scenes are perfectly fitting. Although the real star of the film is obviously Coppola's script & direction, the runner-up is definitely its two key performances from Bill Murray & Scarlett Johansson.
Murray stars as Bob Harris; an actor going through a midlife crisis & is in Japan to act in a commercial. Finding the country too weird for him in every way & mulling over his past life plus recent loneliness, he happens to meet Johansson's character Charlotte, a young college graduate in Japan with his husband, who is a celebrity photographer. Charlotte is unsure about her life & is as lost as Bob, so when they chat for the first time, an instant connection is there between the two as both try to help each other in an atmosphere they don't want to be in and an innocent, budding friendship or maybe more develops between them as the film progresses. Both Murray & Johansson have delivered fabulous performances here that carries no major complaints & their chemistry together clicked amazingly well.
On an overall scale, Lost in Translation turned out to be a very impressive, entertaining & heartwarming experience, thanks to Coppola's wonderful job behind the camera, lush cinematography, steady pace & superb performances from both Bill Murray & Scarlett Johansson. And although it presents only a single facet of Japanese life for most of its story, & did go slightly overboard in mocking their culture, Lost in Translation still manages to work as a wonderfully crafted motion picture for the most part & is one of the best original works in the careers of both its cast as well as crew.