Nomination should have been "best-connected new director"

Rating: 6/10 (26 October 2004)

I doubt anyone would have seen this had Sofia's last name not been "Coppola". (And that would have been unfortunate--don't get me wrong.) The film is well done and worth a look, but it's very much in the category of "rent, don't buy".
I've never been to Tokyo, and I might think differently about it if I had. (For example, my Dad really enjoyed "The Sound of Music" (he's not a big fan of musicals) because it showed so much of Austria, where he had lived for several years.) Very early in the movie it was clear that the film was as much about "here is what the experience of being in Tokyo is like" as it was about anything else. That's a perfectly valid thing for a film to be about, but if something gets nominated for best picture, you might expect a little more.
Now, granted, the relationship that forms is interesting--it's not like the story is pathetic and Tokyo is the only thing the movie has going for it. But...Best Director? Best Actor? Best Picture? That's just way, way overdoing it.
If you want to enjoy it, go into it with this in mind: "I want to see what being in Tokyo is like." If that's your only expectation, you'll like the film. If you go in wanting to see why it got the nominations it did, you'll still be wondering at the end.