A Sweet Week as A Fish-out-of-Water in a Strange Land

Rating: Null/10 (21 September 2003)

"Lost in Translation" is non-categorizable, as it finds the human touch between identity crises of both middle age and young adulthood.

Sofia Coppola has sensitively written and carefully visualized a very subtle story that ranges from out and out comic to immensely touching.

Who would have thought that in this day and age another big city could seem so foreign and in a McDonald's world that cultures seem so far apart, but she does this for Tokyo and Japanese culture vs. us with the lead characters. The fish-out-of-water feel for Japan, from its most refined high culture and religion to its low life and pop silliness, becomes a wonderful visual metaphor for how we feel out of place in our own skins as we change as individuals and within personal relationships. (I doubt this film will work overseas.)
The imdb credits don't match the ones listed in the film that her brother Roman was the Tokyo unit director, but the dreamy look is similar to Sofia's opposite suburban environment in "Virgin Suicides," which he also worked on. Key music on this soundtrack is again by the band Air, here "Alone in Kyoto."
Scarlett Johansson has captured the camera for me since "Manny and Lo,", but she's now the same age Bacall was when she burst on the screen and the voice now matches the sultry look. Bill Murray bravely takes on references to his past work, from the lounge singer in "Saturday Night Live" to a clip of some forgettable flick, as he enlivens a fading Hollywood star. (I never thought of him as particularly tall, but his towering above the Japanese is a continuing joke.)
Notably, their spouses are not portrayed as out and out buffoons or uncaring clods, but are trying to make up for communication problems in their own ways, adding to the tensions with their bumbling, well-meaning efforts to revive the relationships while the two leads become closer and closer in their ability to communicate, particularly through silences and looks.

Keanu Reeves is thanked in the credits, doubtless for permission to use his first name in reference to a satirical scene that pokes fun at "his" bimbo co-star on a press junket for a fictive action film. This touch is one of many that are unpredictable in this sweet movie about a week in the lives of two people who are probably changed forever.