A little bit different soul mate movie

Rating: 8/10 (14 January 2014)

Bob Harris (Bill Murray) is a fading Hollywood actor who goes to Japan to film a whiskey commercial. Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) is a young woman recently graduated from Yale who accompanies her husband on a business trip. They both are lost by being not sure about themselves and where their life is going as well as having trouble to fit in. So while being in this amazing city they have trouble appreciating it hanging out all the time in the hotel until they meet each other and spend time together giving each other a certain support in self exploration.
The movie isn't so much about plot as it is about looking at the characters. We go through their feelings and see them struggle with something within that is lost in translation to the outer world. I didn't like the movie when it came out, I was a bit too young for it. Now about a decade later I could see things that I didn't see before.
Being set in Japan offers a beautiful analogy of being in the world that is so different from yourself where you stand out and being unable to communicate with it. People who consider it to be racist must have missed it. Look, I am not an American, but seeing this as making fun of Japanese culture and American superiority arrogance is a bit of a paranoia. For the most, when it comes to the cultural/language scenes we mainly laugh at the characters who are out of place, or better yet we laugh at the situation,not the Japanese who happily live their lives in one of the most exciting places in the world and obviously don't all speak English. I especially enjoyed the scene with the whiskey commercial. It is a great parallel to trying to act in this world when you have trouble understanding what it wants from you. And having read the translation to the dialogue makes it so much better.
One thing I couldn't see was Charlotte being neglected by her husband. The movie tries to present it, but considering that he is on the business trip it is hard to blame him for concentrating on work. While I sympathize with Charlotte feeling lost and lonely, he doesn't strike me as a negative character. I see him more to be in his own world, away from her, the world of his work.
I like to see the relationship between Bob and Charlotte. It is strictly platonic, even though you can feel some sexual tension develop. It is also interesting how they are so different yet in the same place at this moment.By place I don't mean physical place, more like their mental place. Both are at different stages of life yet lost to the point that they have no problems understanding each other and connect.
Good acting by both main characters. I never saw Bill Murray in such a movie before and think he did a great job. Also impressed by Scarlett Johansson who was only 18 when the movie was made. Amazing how she was able to catch this character. I was 2 years older than her when it came out, but found it dull because I didn't get it.