I didn't get the point of the movie

Rating: 4/10 (7 October 2003)

*Spoiler Warning* I'm pretty sure Mrs. Coppola meant something when she wrote this script, but I can't quite get it. Oh, probably because it was whispered between the main characters at the end of the movie. Like most of other viewers I was anxiously waiting for this movie to be released after reading the excellent reviews. Hadn't the reviews been so great, I would probably have enjoyed the unusual pictures from Japan (there is a gorgeous scene with Mount Fuji on the back). I feel reticent to say that the jokes were funny when they are based only on miscommunication or cultural differences between the American character played by Bill Murray and the Japanese (if I was Japanese I would probably be offended by some jokes). Otherwise the movie is as boring as the characters are depressed. I waited for the story to get started during some time, but it never did. A few scenes are pointless and helpless to add meaning to the story, such as the one both go to a hospital to treat a `black toe' (as a physician black toe means necrosis to me = amputation but it never happened). I wonder if the movie was written and directed by someone unknown it would have gotten that much publicity and good critic reviews.