Sofia rocks

Rating: 9/10 (14 March 2005)

The movie takes place in Tokyo, Japan. It is about two persons who stay in the same exclusive hotel not knowing about each other at the very beginning.
One of them is Bob Harris (Bill Murray). He's an aging, burn-out film-star who has come to Tokyo to shoot a 2$ whiskey commercial. Most of the time he's plagued by jet-lag and sleepless nights. In addition he feels trapped in Toyko because he neither can speak Japanese nor he has someone to talk to. His marriage has reached an all-time-low and he's in the midst of a midlife crisis. Consequently, for him there seem to be no more challenges on horizon. Obviously he feels lost in his life and trapped in Tokyo. This isolation becomes very clear when he's shooting the commercial or when he sits alone in his hotel-room not knowing what to do. His situation is an air-conditioned nightmare.
The other person who stays in the same hotel is Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) who's at the age of 25. She accompanies her husband who has come to Tokyo for business reasons. In opposite to Bob she's at the beginning of her life. She's newly wedded, has graduated from Yale and she's looking for her place in life. Like Bob Harris everything in this city is absolutely alien to her. On one hand there is this strict cultural tradition in up to every gesture and on the other hand there is this amount of technology which over-floats Tokyo. For her Tokyo seems to be a shifted version of western modernity. In addition she's most of time left alone because her husband works all over the day. All these circumstances strengthen Charlotte's feeling of isolation. You can say that she experiences a similar air-conditioned nightmare as Bob does.
As YOU can guess -All these parallels are just waiting to be connected:
After a few days they discover each other in the westerized hotel-bar in the middle of a sleepless night. Bob Harris is glad for having found someone he can talk to. On the other hand there is Charlotte who needs Bob's humor and attention. Out of their kind conversation develops a strong friendship. I think that these little moments of the development make the film very interesting. After the bar, better said their discovery they meet each other more often. They enjoy Tokyo's nightlife for example by doing karaoke in special bars, once they visit a strip club which they leave fast or they just meet in the bar or in Bob's hotel-room. With every conversation they are more connected to each other and at the end there develops a slight sexual tension between them and both realize that the time in Tokyo is running out ...
-----------Great FILM-------------