Telling an indie story in a far away place gives "Translation" charm

Rating: 8/10 (6 April 2009)

Japan, international capital of anime, video games, flashy signs and wacky game shows now plays backdrop in "Lost In Translation" a nuanced and independently spirited film written and directed Sofia Coppola, daughter of -- yeah, that guy. Never before has Tokyo been portrayed as a playground for Western indie antics, but that's what this film is about: two essentially boring but likable characters at different crisis points in their lives finding each other half way around the world. Tokyo isn't celebrated here as much as it's meant to be a flashy gargantuan metaphor for everything Westerners like in their little independent dramas.
The film stars Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson, two actors clearly representative of an age gap, which adds a nice touch to the film. Murray recognizes he can't play the same parts he used to and continues to portray older men with a dry sense of humor, out-or-work actor Bob Harris here being no exception. Bob is in Tokyo filming a commercial for a Japanese whiskey brand that will earn him $2 million. Johansson plays Charlotte, a young married woman accompanying her photographer husband who isn't sure if she's made the right choice. Both characters are troubled by their predicament in Japan and want out, but that changes when they meet each other.
Their unlikely friendship borders on the non-platonic and Coppola wants your formula- drugged Western mind to go there as she plays up the tension: one way of maintaining your interest in an otherwise uneventful film.
It's not that "Lost In Translation" is boring, it's just subtle in its themes and asks too much of the viewer in terms of how much work must be done to get something meaningful out of it, at least for the bulk of the film. A long wide shot of Murray playing golf by himself with a Japanese mountain in the background has a lot of meaning when you internalize it for a bit, but it doesn't engage the viewer quite like a good dialog. The movie is so quiet sometimes, yet when it speaks it has great things to say -- it just needs to be saying them a bit more.
"Lost In Translation" futzes around indeed, but in its uneventful glory, it comes across as one of the more honest depictions of a relationship, especially of one between two people at such different places on the age continuum. With the exception of a few overtly bland lines too many when trying to get across the monotony of Bob's relationship with his wife, everything feels substantially more real. Murray pulls this off surprisingly well and Johansson, well, she's a gem. Knowing her now as Woody Allen's 21st Century muse, I've no doubt that this performance got her those parts.
So Japan just becomes a lost character in a sense, a way to compound the frustrations of a horrifically Western lifestyle with its eccentric citizens and obvious language hurdles. It's not one of the most brilliant inclusions of a setting as a character, but it provides a rich new way to tell a twist on the different age but similar life destinations story.