The Emperor's New Clothes

Rating: 1/10 (30 October 2003)

I don't need a happy ending. I love moody films. I did not love Lost in Translation. A feature-length, rambling series of scenes does not make a story. What was the point? Okay, both main characters are lost internally and externally as they come together in an unfamiliar culture. One young with potential, one older on the downswing. I get all that. But again, where is the story? That they form an unlikely friendship? Well, that's mildly nice but not compelling enough to make a great, or even good film.
The main characters did not undergo any mild or major transformational experience; they did not learn anything of consequence; they did not contribute positively or negatively to their own or others' lives. Nothing happened. There was no there there. Some of the scenes were humorous, but they were not connected to each other. Was watching Bob on the treadmill funny? Sure, but how did that relate to anything? There were just too many scenes like that. Pretty much the entire film was like that.
Yes, the cinematography was fine -- but as Robert McKee would tell anyone, that is not enough ... you need a good, or if we're lucky, a great story. Go see Whale Rider for a film with much lower production value that nonetheless tells a great story -- you care about those characters. I didn't care about Bob, Charlotte, or anyone else in Lost in Translation. This is self-indulgent filmmaking -- an auteur director creating an film that if you, the audience, don't "get" then obviously, it's you, the audience, who isn't smart enough or hip enough or artsy enough to understand.