"For me, I sympathized with the characters more than I empathized with them"

Rating: 9/10 (24 January 2004)

WARNING: Newspaper-style movie review, including plot discussion.
Lost in Translation has been praised by countless critics as the singular indie gem of 2003. Personally, I found House of Sand and Fog and Monster to be far more compelling viewing, yet I cannot criticize reviewers who lavished this film with four-star reviews and glowing rhetoric. This is an original piece of work, with a decided air of wisdom, that simply didn't connect with me deeply at any point. Director Sofia Coppola provides several long silences for what one can only assume is viewer introspection. Judging from the film's enthusiastic following, Lost translated art into life quite well.
For me, I sympathized with the characters more than I empathized with them. I was unable to find an "in" to become emotionally engaged in the plot. The characters were recognizable, but difficult for me to identify with. For that reason, I felt detached--like a viewer of rather than party to the experience--for the length of the film. Instead of wise, the film felt wispy. It was entertaining while it ran, but once the credits rolled, it immediately began its rapid fade into the nether-regions of my memory.
But, despite these screenplay issues, the acting and direction absolutely stand out as among the best work in recent memory. If the material had been stronger, this potent combination probably would have churned out a film truly deserving of Best Picture consideration. Bill Murray gives his best screen performance ever as Bob Harris, a B-list American movie star who is shipped off to Japan for a big money liquor endorsement. Away from his family and home country, Harris feels the pangs of isolation and depression. The sporadic calls to his wife reveal a woman who is distant, and a relationship that has long since fizzled.
Harris can't sleep a wink, and spends a great deal of time in the hotel bar, where he meets young newlywed Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson). Charlotte, a recent college graduate with a degree in philosophy, is married to a photographer with seemingly no interest in her; he prefers to hang out with the ditzy airheads he shoots. Both with equal desperation to escape their surroundings, Bob and Charlotte strike an unexpected and deep friendship. We believe they are soul mates, yet the circumstances are damning. Can they drop everything that's become so achingly familiar and try to start their lives over again, perhaps more along the lines of what they had hoped they'd always be?
As good as Murray is, and he is absolutely terrific, Johansson taps into a wonderful intangible that makes her presence on the screen absolutely intoxicating. She shares palpable chemistry with the much-older Murray, making the bond between them feel all the more genuine. Director Coppola takes full advantage of this, with inventive visuals and direction that is so sure-handed it comes as a shock Lost is her sophomore feature effort. There are literally a dozen different lingering shots that could easily work as effective poster images.
For all those reasons, it is frustrating the film itself isn't stronger as an end product. Even the beginning, with several big laughs, just leads to a bit of a letdown when comedic momentum runs out in the third act. But, despite numerous imperfections, any Oscar buzz on the film is much appreciated. Nothing would please me more than to see Lost in Translation's "David" vanquish the Lord of the Rings "Goliath" that has turned cinema toward epic moviemaking and away from the intimate human stories that move mountains so much more effectively than an army of the dead.
Final Grade: B+