Tokyo turns in a strong supporting role

Rating: Null/10 (19 October 2003)

If I can say anything definite about this movie, its that it made me want to go to Tokyo.
Its hard not to want to resent Sofia Coppola. She is the daughter of Francis Ford Coppola, head of a cinematic royal family. She's become this acclaimed director, but one has to be suspect of her talents. Is she successful because of the Coppola brand name? Is what you see on the screen actually the work of friends and family?
I don't want to make a blanket statement about the movie. I can't say that it made a believer out of me. Its an enviably well made film, that held me from its opening image to satisfying conclusion.
Bill Murray plays Bob Harris, a Hollywood movie star whose star is fading. He is recieving two million dollars for filming a Japanese whiskey commercial in Tokyo. Also staying at his Tokyo hotel is Charlotte played by Scarlett Johansson. Her husband is a photographer who is in Tokyo to photograph a Japanese rock band. After each being disoriented in this strange environment, they find each other in the Hotel bar. They spend a week or so exploring the city, and elements of human nature. The culture shock they are both experiencing provides the perfect atmosphere in which they can step outside themselves and reexamine their worlds from the outside looking in.
There's not a single thing that irks me about the movie. I can't find anything I want to complain about. A friend of mine complained about the length and pointlessness of the karaoke scene, but I found the whole thing charming. How can you not want to watch Bill Murray singing "More than this"? But the scene has so much more going for it beneath the surface: When Charlotte is singing "Brass in Pocket" by the Pretenders, its not just an excuse to put Scarlett Johansson in a pink wig and belt out a fun song, she's singing an anthem for her character. Its a precursor to a comment that Bob will make later in the film about Charlotte's craving for attention. One could say that the karaoke scene is just a subtle and entertaining way to deliver copious exposition.
"Lost in Translation" is an incredibly well made film that can do nothing but please. Unflinchlingly transient in moving from showcasing Tokyo, to Bob and Charlotte's ambiguous relationship to the Japanese countryside, "Translation" is a pitch perfect view into a whole other world.