A funny and beautiful movie

Rating: 10/10 (21 February 2004)

'Lost in Translation' is one of the best, probably the best, movies of 2003. It is sad and sweet at the same time. Here is a movie that is intelligent enough to avoid the clichés in a story. In a lesser movie certain things would have happened, but not in this movie.
Bob Harris (Bill Murray) is an American actor who is in Tokyo to shoot a commercial for a brand of whiskey. He is in his fifties and seems almost bored with life. He speaks his wife on the phone but she hardly listens to him. Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) is in the same hotel with her husband John (Giovanni Ribisi). He is a photographer and has to leave for a couple of days. It is clearly he thinks his wife is only in the way. She is in her early twenties.
Bob and Charlotte meet and from that moment they spend most of their time together. They wonder through the city of Tokyo, they go to parties, they sit at the bar in the hotel. Every moment between Murray and Johansson is perfect and the last moment they share together is one of the most beautiful moments I have seen in a movie. Although many people have mentioned that moment I will not spoil it if you don't know it yet.
Although the movie doesn't sound anything like a comedy, it definitely is. Murray in his best performance, the best of this year as well (although Sean Penn in 'Mystic River' comes very close), stays in character every single moment. There are moments he could become Bill Murray and try to create the funny moments, but he stays Bob Harris the entire time and the comedy comes with that. Scarlett Johansson is almost as good and it is a shame she wasn't nominated for an Oscar (for this movie or 'Girl with a Pearl Earring').
Director Sofia Coppola has given us a wonderful movie which I loved in every single way, from the opening shot that makes sure it has our attention until the last final moments between Murray and Johansson. It is the perfect ending for the perfect movie.