Great film about the modern condition

Rating: 10/10 (27 February 2016)

After falling in love with Sofia Coppola's stylized character study Marie Antoinette (2006), I was hungry for more of her films. I admit I found The Bling Ring (2013) disappointing, but Lost in Translation (2003) was as amazing as I had been led to believe. Few contemporary films so acutely depict modern alienation as this little romantic drama.
Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson are the unlikely friends who find themselves at a crossroads in their lives. Murray's washed up movie star has hit a midlife crisis and a low point in his strained marriage; Johansson is fresh out of college, unsure about where to go from there, and to top it all off unhappily married. Coppola throws the two lonely Americans into 21st century Tokyo, turning the city into a modern Wonderland of electric lights and fleeting pleasures in the forms of arcades and night clubs. Disconnected from themselves and unable to understand Japanese, Murray and Johansson find their alienation made manifest and cling to one another for solace. A few scenes focus on Buddhist priests and the natural beauty of Japan, denoting an elegiac longing for an older world, but as the melancholy ending shows, there is slight chance for escape, though it is left ambiguous as to whether or not the characters will ever be able to find peace. We leave them at the crossroads, unsure of which road they will take.
About the only flaw this film has is the occasionally troublesome depiction of the Japanese characters. I can see where some critics were coming from when they called LIT a spectacle of Otherness for westerners. Aside from this problematic element, the film really is a masterpiece, Coppola's best to date, though I would argue Marie Antoinette is really close.