Aimless

Rating: Null/10 (26 May 2004)

It's impossible to criticize this movie without being labeled some sort of mouth-breathing bohemian, but it's just such a listless movie that no matter how many times I've seen it (four) the same parts still stick out and everything else drags. There is a scene where Charlotte says, "I guess every girl goes through a photography phase", and I assume Coppola is going through hers. While I completely understand concepts of setting the scene, mood, and tension, there are moments where these things were obviously attempted, they just didn't hit the spot. The scenes that attempt to illustrate a disconnect between Bob and his wife come off as painfully obvious (look! she's sending him carpet samples where he doesn't care!)Worse, Bob seems whiny and too self-involved. Yeah I get it, he's a washed up movie star, but it just seems like it's more of a role than an actual character. It's a problem with all the characters in the movie: they're all caricatures, which isn't a problem for certain types of movies, but for this movie it is a problem. Charlotte is the ambitious and wishful type who's unsure of just about everything she does. Her husband is the uncaring sort, more interested in flirting with the ditzy movie star actress type. And so on. I will say that the music is the best thing about the movie. The karaoke scene breathes some life and joy into these characters, as does the arcade montage. The previous scenes along with the dreamy car-ride set to My Bloody Valentine seem to have slipped out of a movie where a platonic relationship is more truthfully and interestingly observed. Instead of giving these people something to do, they sort of just sit or lay or stand around and talk. Not a bad thing, interesting movies have been made from this premise before. It's just that the movie is so manipulative; the only reason we know "this character behaves this way because" is not because of a natural response to the character, it's because it's what we're "told". The worst of this occurs in the painful scene where they lay in bed and have a conversation that lasts about 3,000 hours that could've easily taken two minutes. Every pause for reflection and depth rings so false. People will scream, "go see Van Helsing for the 10th time, you dolt" but I can't help it; the movie isn't boring because nothing happens, it's boring because things happen that are phony and completely (to quote Charlie Kaufman) "artificially plot-driven". I know I (regrettably) gave a higher rating to Big Fish (it's officially rated a 5.3 now), I'm gonna give Lost in Translation a rating of: 5.5.