An Artistic Depiction of being 'lost'.

Rating: 7/10 (27 March 2008)

At best the movie is a story about feeling out-of-place - in relationships, in life and in surroundings. The visuals are nice and the movie is powerful, and while the acting is good the story could have used more work.
Bill Murray plays a middle-aged married man who does alcohol advertisements and travels to Japan for a photo-shoot, all the while promoting the product he's trying to sell. Scarlett Johansson plays a young woman whose husband cares more about his work than his relationship, and would much rather go back to America than stay in Japan and feel lost. Both of the characters feel out-of-place in Japan, which is totally different from America, and find kindred spirits in each other. Murray gets drunk and sleeps with an atrocious lady while he's there, which he will now have to go back home and explain to his wife and children, and Johansson stays in Japan with her husband but it's implied that she may now have the courage to talk to him and tell him things aren't working. The two find unlikely friendship in each other, and possibly learn more about themselves and what they want to do with their lives.
And that's pretty much the whole movie. But, it's still worth watching from an artistic perspective. I should also mention that this movie portrays two peoples' experiences in Japan negatively, and this may not be the case for every American that goes to Japan. Both of the main characters didn't really have much interest in being in Japan either, they were there because of work and spouses.
After watching the movie I did think a lot, about the main characters and what life would be like in Japan, so it does evoke some feelings. Also, the documentary on the DVD that shows everything Sofia Coppola went through as she made the film was pretty interesting, as was the music video, so the extras on the disc are worth a watch.