Review of Lost in Translation (2003) by Andy G — 29 Sep 2013

There's a certain talent that must be noticed when a screenwriter can give you a scene where not much happens but a lot is felt.

Sofia Coppola deserves our attention for her work in Lost in Translation, one of the sweetest, funniest, most moving pictures I've ever seen. She masterfully presents to us two characters who come to know each other by chance. Their back stories are implied. Only what happens in the present is important to them.

She doesn't make it easy to watch. There is this unsaid sexual tension that lingers after Bob and Charlotte are with each other. But rather than take the easy way out Coppola shows us that loneliness isn't solved by an quick one night stand. Friendship is met by several chance meetings at the bar, a glance in the elevator, a phone call to remind each other that "the more you know who you are and what you want, the less you let things upset you.".

Lost in Translation is a gem. With its two talented leads, Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson, and Coppola's deft direction, it reminds us that these small pictures can still mean quite a bit.