Brilliant acting and screen writing coming together as one.

Rating: 8/10 (23 January 2015)

The underlying theme of this film is loneliness. Charlotte (played by Johansson) can be seen in the foreground of shots that put her against the background of the city, showing just how small and on her own she really is. Bob (played by Murray) can be seen walking around with a look that can be only described as emptiness on his face, even as a movie star, you never see anyone really care about him before Charlotte enters the picture. Coppola does a good job of hitting this theme and setting up these characters, while both actors give performances that compliment the story.
The story was excellently written and showed the compelling relationship between the two characters in Japan. The progression of the relationship from simple to complicated (as Bob foreshadows when he talks about marriage becoming more complicated earlier in the film) is emotionally effective as you know it's going to have to reach it's inevitable end and the ambiguous nature of the whisper leaves the audience questioning whether Bob will stay or leave Japan.
I didn't give the movie a higher rating because it started off very slowly and there was no real character or story development for the first half an hour. After about fifteen minutes you get the point and you understood that their both feeling lonely, however you continue to get hit with the point for more time than you need to be. Anna Faris was also badly cast and too over the top to be believable.
Overall though, I thought the acting was brilliant, and once the story got going, you really started to care for the characters which is all down to the stellar writing of Coppola. This was a fantastic film and I will, no doubt, end up watching it again.