By far the best performance of Bill Murray's career, he deserves the Oscar!

Rating: 10/10 (20 February 2004)

Even after all of these months, Sofia Coppola's amazing second feature, Lost In Translation continues to amaze audiences worldwide with it's intimate tale of two lost and lonely Americans staying abroad in Tokyo. Here, Murray emphasizes restraint in a performance that is definitely the best of his career. His Bob Harris is the embodyment of an actor truly on the downslope of life. After decades of playing lovable clowns in mainstream movies, his has wisely chosen to work on more independant and personal projects. This film, which was written specifically with Murray in mind was tailor made for his cynical type of humor. (Sean Penn was also very good in Mystic River, but I thought his performace was too over the top, and I felt his performance in 21 Grams was a lot more restrained, but, the academy will ultimately have to decide.) Matching him perfectly is the beautiful and talented young actress Scarlett Johansson who does an amazing job of convincing the audience that not only is she a Yale philosophy graduate, but, also a mature young person looking for her direction in life, despite the fact that she was only 18 when playing this part! Both Murray and Johansson were recetnly honored with best actor and actress awards at the British Academy Awards. I hope that the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences can also honor Murray with a Best Actor Oscar this year!
This movie is not for everyone in that it is a slow, and meaningful character study of two people drawn to each other in a foreign city. If you are looking for another wild and zany Murray comedy, you might be disappointed in that this movie is more of a quiet character study with some humorous moments spread throughout the film. However, once you relate to these two characters you never want to see it end.
This is one of the best films of 2003, and proof that Sofia Coppola, the first American female to be nominated for Best Director has a very promising career ahead of her.
This movie proves that you can often find true love where you least expect it!
A 10 on a scale of 1-10.