Lost in Translation
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Movie Reviews of Lost in Translation
Movie Review: Lost to Small Minds
Summary: 5 Stars
This cinematic treat from Sofia Coppola is an art house film in the best sense of that tradition, and is so clearly not for everyone that I just don't understand why the Terminator crowd even bother with it. The negative reviews variously citing its slow pace, meandering storyline, open-ended structure and lack of conventional resolution are all spot on. But these are the film's very strengths, and the furthest things from weaknesses.
This film is about imperfectly real people, and portrays them with a depth and authenticity that Hollywood rarely strives for, much less achieves. It doesn't pander to hoary conventions or cheap passions, and its deliberate pacing and loose structure are actually products of the director's faith in the intelligence of her audience. She is counting on us to be both receptive and contemplative--sensitive enough to pick up on nuance and understatement without explicit narrative and broadcasted emotive cues. Based on the negative reviews on this site, it's too bad that her faith is misplaced in so many.
Art house films may test our maturity, but too often do so by stepping over into bombast and pretension. Consider "My Dinner With Andre", or "Leaving Las Vegas". In this film Coppola succeeds in coupling maturity with humility: she shows but doesn't tell; she teaches but doesn't preach; she has so much respect for our intelligence that she leaves blanks throughout the film and invites us to fill them in. However, this strands those incapable of or disinclined to filling in such blanks.
This film examines the undercurrents of life. It recognises that the truly vexing parts of life are not the Big Questions, and therefore doesn't proffer Big Answers. If you are looking for soap opera drama, you won't find it here. Likewise, if you are looking for a follow-the-bouncing-dot story, you had best stick with Titanic. This movie is the cinematic equivalent of blank verse poetry: it uses loose structure, unusual rhythms and absence of rhyme to evoke life's discontinuities. Its themes are subterranean and not at all open to mechanical analysis.
The search for meaning in life is invariably difficult and frustrating. We devote much energy to tracking down false leads and dead ends before slowly plotting out the few roads that lead to worthy destinations. This film respects that process by mirroring the journey of its characters in like terms. For example, much of their time is spent staring out windows. For the music video crowd, this is just dead air; but, for thoughtful people, such moments are pauses for reflection. Every time one of the characters pause, we pause, and consider aspects of their existence--hoping that they will arrive at conclusions that will take them one step closer to untangling their lives. It takes a special film to make a viewer so sympathetic to the characters that we step into their skins, and Lost in Translation delivers with a sincerity that is rare and heartfelt.
I would not dream of recommending this film to everyone. Those who need the comfort of formula, the clarity of spoon-fed exposition, and the reassurance of convention will get absolutely nothing out of this film and should just skip it. Here's a simple test: if you feel that, for a movie to be complete, the boy must either get the girl or sacrifice himself in compliance to some tired heroic cliché, then don't bother with this film. You won't like it. But if you can handle uncertainty, meandering structure and understated nuance, then give this film a try. Among mass entertainment that assumes its spectators to be morons, this film's quiet eloquence and regard for its audience is as air to a drowning man.
Movie Review: Lost in the Moment
Summary: 5 Stars
The first time you realized that love was more than infatuation... Your first kiss... The alienation and emptiness of wasted love...Life is full of epiphanies and moments that become mythical and hyperbolized in frequent memory replay. These moments are factors of time and they pass persistently, and we are powerless to recapture them. No movie in recent memory captures the reality of the passing moment and the alienation of a fish out of its proverbial cultural water better than Lost in Translation.
Each scene is like a living polaroid in a vacation album, each only making sense in context with the memories that accompany them. While a relationship is the focal point, both people remain individual, alienated, but connected. This is the beauty of this movie, it's ablility to realistically portray the honesty of human feelings within a dream-like setting of a very real location, Tokyo. Tokyo itself becomes a character in this movie as Bob (Bill Murray) and Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) interact with the city, observe it, are dwarfed by its size, and are mesmerized by its oddities.
Sofia Coppola has crafted a script that passes like a ribbon in the breeze, moving in and out of conversations and moments, catching them in their candid happenings. Scenes capture the lonely minutes and hours of the insomniac, the awkwardness of an abrupt introduction, the uncomfortability of a confrontation, all with the vague sense that, while this seems to be so dream-like, you are catching these moments in their raw honesty. All of these individual moments string together into a story of feeling, rather than happening, being, rather than doing.
Coppola's work as Director is flawless, and the movie was perfectly cast in all of the parts, from Bill Murray as the washed-up actor and Scarlett Johansson as the soul-searching twentysomething, to the ensemble of Japanese, American, and other faces that enter into their world. Murray resists the temptation to use his past work as a primer for the role, and instead, he takes us to depths of complexity that use his familiarity to the audience as well as his unique portrayal of an uncommon role to bring the audience into the experience of the character Bob Harris.
This movie can make you think of those unlikely memories that you rarely visit, and it takes the audience into the depths of a relationship that is so human in its complexity and so identifyable in its innocence. Plus the soundtrack perfectly captures the feelings that the director attempts to ossify in the audience's memory.
That said, this movie isn't for everyone. It blatantly bucks the traditional hollywood-type characterizations, and is therefore much more thorough, however slow, in building the characters around which the entire story revolves. This could lose the interest of some viewers more accustomed to a typical popcorn flick, as well as viewers expecting a typical Bill Murray comedy. It is actually somewhat of a disservice to the audience that this film was marketed as a comedy, since much of the humor is very subtle, and the movie overall does not seem like a vehicle for humor. Humor is just one sarcastic lens through which Bill Murray's character processes his journey through this foreign world.
This movie contains scenes, such as the scene in the karaoke booth, which I believe will remain in the conscience of American cinema for a long time. For this and all the above reasons, I highly recommend this movie for everyone who has felt like an outsider or had a whirlwind relationship that was greater for its brevity than it ever would have been at length.
Movie Review: One of the best movies I've seen with one of the best ending
Summary: 5 Stars
After watching Lost In Translation I could sum it up as a film about hope. The movie felt so great at the end and it just makes you want to laugh, cry, and perhaps jump for joy.
Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson star together in what I would consider one of the best movie about loneliness and hopefulness. Bill Murray played a middle aged actor who is having a midlife crisis and then happen to meet a young, beautiful woman (Scarlett Johansson) who is just starting out with life and really just don't know what lies ahead. To say the least, the two of them are fairly lonely in their trip to Tokyo and question what lies ahead. Murray is on a business trip to make money from sponsors, but he has a wife at home who pays more attention to their children than him. Johansson plays a newly wed wife who is tagging along with her husband on a business trip. She isn't sure what lies ahead in the future of the two, and she is sort of depressed and feels isolated. Together, Johansson and Murray learn something together and both at the end realizes that life has a lot more to offer than what is in a relationship.
I would say the best thing about Lost in Translation is the movie's setting. It is filmed on location in Tokyo, Japan. I never been to Japan, but I have been to Korea and I can relate to the feeling of isolation but as well as a part of the culture there. You can't understand what anyone is saying, nor can you understand the surrounding environment, and to top it off, anyone you happen to meet who speaks English can speak it very well but carrying out an actual decent conversation is next to impossible. I think Lost in Translation captured that very well.
I think what makes this movie so special is the actors who played it out. Scarlett has a very special look to her that I think fit well for this movie. She has a sort of modern beauty to her, but at the same time, you can sort of sense that she is searching for something in life. Bill Murray usually plays an arrogant, stuck up character, but his role in this movie used that to its advantage but also brought about something human in him. You can almost feel a sense of loneliness, confusion, and sort of hopelessness out of his character as he is stuck in a midlife crisis.
The movie ends in what I would consider thought provoking. [spoilers] At the end of the movie, Bill has to return home from Japan and Johansson is sort of sad to see him go, but doesn't really know what to say or how to say goodbye. So they sort of shook hands, said a quick goodbye, and parted. Still not feeling all that great, Bill is in his taxi when he sees Johansson walking amongst the crowd. He tells the driver to stop, and he walks up besides Johansson and they meet again both looking confused as to what to say. Bill then hugs Johansson, and he whispers something to her ear then parts. I think this is quite possibly the best part of the entire film. It sort of makes you wonder what Bill said to Johansson at the end, but at the same time it gives you a bit of hope and inspiration that even though you feel lonely now, and perhaps in what ever relationship you are in, that there is always hope and in that it sort of brings about your purpose, I think. [end spoilers].
With such a brilliant ending, wonderfully thought out actor and actress, and a beautiful setting, I think this movie is one of the best movies of the recent decade. At the end of the film I was feeling great about myself and each time I see this movie, I just think about it for days at a time. I say get this movie!
Movie Review: While not for everybody...
Summary: 5 Stars
This film is not for everybody. The premise is not strange but it does have an exotic air to it. One reviewer here wrote something about it's lack of sensitivity towards Japan and the Japanese. I didn't see that. I saw a film about two displaced people who probably shouldn't have gone to Japan and I never was convinced that their take of the country was meant to be worldly or balanced. They were both their because of circumstances that led them there and their take was never meant to be some utopian ideal. The actor (Murray) was there because the money was too good (presumebly) to pass up. The young wife (Johanssen) was there to be with her new husband, and she did try to take in the culture and the sights. That they amused themselves in their boredom by making light of their circumstances is nothing more than a safety valved to compensate for their loneliness and apprehension about being in that alien place. As the film progressed they got out of their shells and had fun among the locals, and by the end there was no doubt that the memory of the experience would be a high mark among others which would sustain them as they continued in their lives. I really loved to see how this change came about as well as the sexless love affair that ensued (the lack of sexual intimacy put more weight into the affair making it seem somewhat more potent and on some levels more disturbing when regarding their marriage partners) within this setting of glittering towers, high tech commercial visual displays and little restaurants. The population, that was as varried as any metropolitan cities around the world, and despite the language barrier, were also the stars. The fact that Murray's character is uneasy and somewhat flippant toward his hosts is not because he's a creep. These people are just as shallow as handlers on the other side of the Pacific and my guess is that he's disappointed with that realization. I can understand that. How often are Hollywood and advertisement folks painted with a broad brush in the USA? I never hear anyone complain of that treatment. It's the character growth in this film that makes me like them despite knowing very little about them. I've been in strange places with a language barrier and it's often not very pleasant but eventually you get out, meet the strangers, eat their food, drink their beverages and do that weird pantomime with hand gestures and facial expressions, and, if you're smart, a well placed local greeting, and things are no longer very strange.One word of caution. Just because the critics like something, or, heck, even your best friend, that is no indication of whether you will like the film. Don't blame the film because you didn't like it. Their intention is to entertain people and not rob them of their hard earned cash. Next time pay attention to the previews (most filmmakers have very little say about how a film is marketed) and really read those critics' reviews and from a few sources not just one or two. For more than a few people who've reviewed this film I get the impression that they bought into the hype rather than made good individual choices.Never, never buy into the hype. While I like (putting it mildly) this film, I can't see why it was as popular as it was. It's not that kind of film. The last time I saw this happen was with "American Beauty". Another great film but not one that was a crowd pleaser. Both of these films are too layered and subtle to be popular. The viewing audience is not at fault for liking or disliking this film, but neither are the filmmakers. Chalk this up to bad communication.Movie Review: A Charming Lost and Found Experience
Summary: 5 Stars
As I began to compose this brief commentary, I remembered that Sofia Coppola was cast as the infant being baptized during the final sequence of events in the first Godfather film (1972) which her father directed. She later appeared in Godfather Part III, a last minute and miscast substitute, reputedly for Winona Ryder. How different this film is from those films as well as The Conversation (1974) and Apocalypse Now/Redux (1979) which her father also directed. With regard to Lost in Translation, she wrote the screenplay as well as directed it, evoking brilliant performances from Bill Murray (as Bob Harris) and Scarlett Johansson (as Charlotte). For me, the title suggests multiple dimensions of irony. Some are obviously related to Harris, familiar to those in Tokyo who recognize him but certainly adrift (if not totally lost) in a culture foreign to him in almost every possible way. Other ironies involve communication difficulties unrelated to fluency in language. For example, even after two years of marriage, Charlotte and John (Giovanni Ribisi) are -- to a significant extent -- strangers to each other as are Bob and his wife back in the United States to whom he has been married for quite some time. Moreover, much of the communication between Charlotte and Bob is also lost in translation, more the result (I think) of generational than linguistic differences. All this suggests an important point to me: It is difficult (if not impossible) for others to know who you are if you don't. It is also so important, moreover, to know who you aren't. Presumably Bob has been struggling with these issues, at least since his career began to evaporate. Both Bob and Charlotte are at or near a crossroad in their respective lives when they first meet. After several days together, their relationship arrives at another crossroad. Which way to go? Where is his life headed? And hers? Will they proceed together?
Here are two of several reasons why I admire this film so much. First, thanks to Coppola and her superb cast, it has exceptional charm. There are so many targets of opportunity for a cynical statement. However, to her great credit, she ignores them all. Although there are highly amusing (sometimes zany) moments along the way, to be sure, Coppola develops the characters of Bob and Charlotte with respect and affection but never with condescension. The second reason is that this film has great natural energy which Coppola juxtaposes with moments of intimacy, tenderness, reflection, and even poignancy. To achieve that, Coppola and Lance Acord blend as well as balance exterior shots of Tokyo at night (which resembles Las Vegas) with exterior shots of religious shrines during the day, thereby complementing Charlotte and Bob's diverse moods as they explore at least some of the country in which they feel lost.
Given what she achieves in this film, I am eager to see how Coppola's career develops in years to come. My hunch (only a hunch) is that her talents are more diverse than those of her father (e.g. slapstick comedy) and thus the nature and extent of opportunities which await her are greater than those available to him after the first Godfather film (1972). He must be a very proud father....and should be.
FYI: The special features of the DVD version include a conversation with Coppola and Murray, a behind-the-scenes featurette which includes exclusive footage shot by the filmmakers ("Lost on Location"), several deleted scenes, and an extended version of the Japanese TV show, "Matthew's Best Hit TV."