The Best Film You'll See This Year

Rating: Null/10 (14 January 2004)

This is an excellent film. I'm rather surprised at some of the negative comments from other IMDb users, I can only believe that some people thought they were going to see an action movie. Lost in Translation does not contain any car chases or exploding buildings - it is, instead, a beautifully paced movie about two people who find themselves lost and dislocated in a foreign city and in their lives.
Bill Murray plays Bob Morris a movie star whose best days are behind him - he hasn't made a successful movie since the 70s - he's in Tokyo to make a commercial for Suntory whiskey. Scarlett Johansson is Charlotte, a recent Yale graduate who's come to Tokyo with her photographer husband. The two are jet-lagged and lonely but find respite in each other's company, over time their relationship deepens into something more meaningful. That's about as much plot as there is, but this isn't really a film about plot - it's a witty, moving tale set against the surreal backdrop of modern day Tokyo.
There are too many good moments in this film to list them all but a few do stand out; such as when, after taking Charlotte to her hotel room and putting her to bed, Bill Murray pauses for a few seconds before closing the door - he knows that once the door clicks shut he'll never be able to go back in. There's also a great cameo by Anna Faris as Kelly - an empty-headed Hollywood actress in Tokyo to promote her latest action movie, Midnight Velocity. Her discussion about anorexia is hilarious, and absolutely spot on - it's about time that someone nailed the lie perpetrated by virtually every skinny Hollywood actress that their bodyshape is due to having a lightning fast metabolism rather than judicious dieting and exercise.

The stand-out performance though is definitely Scarlett Johansson, if she doesn't get an Oscar then there's no justice. Make no mistake about it, Ms Johansson is going to be a big, big star. She delivers a quite outstanding performance as Charlotte, full of nuance and emotion - I still can't quite believe that someone so young should seem to know so much. Which is, perhaps, the cause of the central frustration of the movie - the fact that the Murray/Johansson relationship remains unconsummated. The camera certainly loves Scarlett Johansson so surely Bill Murray's character must do too. One review suggests that it's the age difference between the two - Murray would have been seen as a middle-aged lecher - I wouldn't agree with that (Clint Eastwood has got away with much worse, after all). I'd tend to think that Sofia Coppola has simply copped out of the sex question - she didn't know how to handle it.
There are minor quibbles about the film - the over-reliance on the comedy potential of the Japanese 'R'/'L' transposition, for example, but, all the same, this is an outstanding movie and I seriously doubt that I'll see anything better this year.