Well worth finding

Rating: 10/10 (11 July 2015)

A warm and quietly compelling portrait of two people trying to navigate their own changing circumstances and the strange new culture –Tokyo, circa 2003 - in which they suddenly find themselves.
Bill Murray, as Bob Harris, portrays a world-weary film and TV actor who's on yet another job to pay the bills and who looks as confused by his latest workplace as any new visitor. He gives probably the most convincing portrayal of jet lag I've seen.
Scarlett Johansson is so good at portraying characters who are 'outsiders' in some way, and here she is excellent as the bemused, curious and disoriented Charlotte, newly-married to a young photographer and accompanying him on a shoot. Her character especially benefits from Sofia Coppola's proved skill in portraying young women on screen, while her character and Bill Murray's are equally well-observed and well-acted.
The film has some nicely-observed comic moments while convincingly conveying the sense of being 'lost' in a foreign culture and trying to find one's bearings there and in the wider world, and even in life itself.
And it must be said that Tokyo comes over as a really vivid and 'live' place – it's only strange to the two visitors because it is what it is.
All in all, a real gem of a film, excellent.