an exploration of alienation and boredom...

Rating: 4/10 (15 January 2004)

that succeeds in boring and alienating its audience... a decently made, occasionally amusing, 105 minute exercise in tedium. *obligatory spoiler warning* two americans, a washed up actor and an ivy league graduate, meet in a luxury hotel in tokyo... they spend several days together wandering around the city, complaining to each other about their empty lives. there, if you ignored the warning above, i just saved you the trouble of seeing "lost in translation". then again, if watching two wealthy, unhappily married people waste their idle time feeling sorry for themselves is your idea of entertainment, this movie is perfect for you.
so much praise has been lavished on this film by critics... that it may stun ordinary viewers (those who could care less who sofia coppola's father is) with its mediocrity. the soundtrack is excellent, and bill murray gives a respectable (though hardly groundbreaking) performance. scarlett johansson, on the other hand, wears the exact same perplexed expression (as if she were trying to remember the capital of oregon) in almost every scene. if this criticism seems unfair to you, watch "the girl with the pearl earring" and notice how much the dutch servant girl resembles the yale philosophy student in "lost in translation"... then admit that johansson cannot act her way out of a paper bag. the camera work is overrated (tokyo is like the seashore on a sunny day, any idiot can take interesting pictures there) and sometimes annoying (honestly, how many times do actors standing four feet apart have to go in and out of focus?) the humor is largely stale... tired jokes about the height and english pronunciation of japanese people, man falling off exercise equipment... yawn. the pacing is horrible... several scenes with no apparent meaning (nightclubs and hotel windows come to mind) go on seemingly forever.
japan though the eyes of two self-absorbed tourists who have more time and money than real interests or appreciation... (4/10)