Everybody wants to be found.

Rating: 10/10 (10 August 2013)

Last night I watched Lost in Translation for the first time. It was very late and I couldn't sleep, so I went past all the movies that were on the shelf and noticed Lost in Translation, which I wanted to watch for a long time - and I don't know if this is something that I share with other people - but I never really was in the mood for it, last night I was and so I did.
The funny thing is this is the first movie that inspired me to review a movie, and give advice to other people to watch it. The movie's been around for ten years now, but hey who knows, if someone hasn't watched it yet, I strongly recommend you should, because you are - like me a day ago - missing out.
This is a great film which resonated with me, and I'll explain why without giving away the plot. It wasn't until a couple hours after I watched it that I came to the conclusion that it's a romantic comedy. The reason for this delayed conclusion is that it's not in the way you would expect a romantic comedy to be. All the elements are there though: you have the guy, you have the girl and you have the glances. But something happens within the film that contributes such an amazing almost depressing atmosphere that words like genre almost fade away.
Using Tokyo as the backdrop for the story was a great choice, for me it felt like it was a character in itself, and added this feeling that at any moment the main characters would wake up and just resume their normal lives. Also have to mention the side characters in the world, they really embody the strange bizarre parts of the world and help make my theory of the fugue state in which the characters live in all the more convincing.
I think another element that was brilliant is putting in feelings that basically everyone has felt at one point. Especially the feeling of being lost or helpless on this particular level is very strong and very well depicted in the movie. So my hat's off to Ms. Coppola.
Finally, stellar performances of Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson really transcend the film into being able to shift from on the surface to very deep, or from funny to serious without noticing when the changes appear. I personally feel very lucky to have watched this film and would wish that with the multiple viewings that are going to happen in the future, to have that same mixed feeling of happiness and melancholy every time the film ends.