Good mixture of sweetness and sadness

Rating: 8/10 (22 December 2007)

I have never watched Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides, but I thought she did one heck of a job with this film.
An emotional masterpiece, Lost In Translation is about two lost souls meeting in Tokyo: One is a fallen-out Hollywood actor doing a whiskey advert there; the other, a young newlywed who feels out of place in her husband's life and does not know what to do in her life. Bob's wife is too busy with their kids to be concerned about him. Charlotte's husband is too busy with his photo work and neglects her emotional needs. Eventually, Bob and Charlotte confide with each other and explore Tokyo together, whilst slowly fall in love with each other. I felt Murray and Johansson played their roles very well and their characters click very well.
I felt the ending was brilliant. Although both already have feelings for one another, both were married and Bob was too old for her and have kids. Even when Bob jokes to her about 'organising a prison break' and Charlotte fantasizes to Bob that both would 'start a jazz band together' shows that they both were tired of their lives and wanted to start afresh together, the sad truth is that bitter reality catches up with them in the end and both part unwillingly.
I thought Coppola took many great scenes of the beauty of Tokyo and Kyoto and presented the oddness of Japanese culture through the eyes of an American. I didn't find it racist of any sort. Many would dislike this show because it's slow place puts people off. I felt the pace was appropriate for it's genre. I believe that the alien Japanese landscape is just a metaphor for the desire for companionship and the 'out-of-place' feeling the protagonists get. It's something many would recognise as we all go through it some point during our lives.
Perhaps that's why I enjoy it so much. Watch it when you are low.