I must be the odd one out...

Rating: 4/10 (19 January 2004)

I still don't get how come so many people find Lost in Traqnslation "awesome".. It's a movie that portrays the "spleen" of normality, the "ennui", and ends up being a total bore itself. Yes, the movie can be called artistic, since it shows to the average americanized viewer ("you," or, in fact, "us") the certain aspect of "beauty" of modern Japan, under a sort of "mystic" light. Yet, did it ever occur to any of you that this is not necesserly an accurate portrayal of Nippon society, but rather a caricature created by well-established stereotypes? Maybe not, but that's how it seamed to me, as I watched this "amazing film".
But anyway, back to the movie... Two "wooden" bored out of themselves characters that just float around for 2 hours and do nothing, except expressing their ennui in every possible way (especially Bill Murray) make a chef-d'oeuvre? Not to me.. This is not my idea of great movie, really, but then (as we say in pseudo-liberalism) to each their own... The redeemable features of the movie could have been that it is "smart", but alas, it is not the case, since it lacks anything that remotely resembles a plot. When we break down the movie, at the end we see that besides the pseudo-ambience, we only see standard people doing standard (non-exciting)things, and we can't help but to draw parallels with the boring normality of everyday's life.
In my humble opinion, just as the similarly acclaimed American Splendor, this movie is overrated. Either that, or I am missing something everybody else sees.