Review of Lost in Translation (2003) by Matthew S — 02 Aug 2015

Sofia Coppola's film comes close to being without flaw. It is very much an almost experimental mood piece, but it often feels a bit like a "road movie" without access to a street or highway.

Lost in Translation presents Bill Murray with a role that seems to have tailor-suited for his snarky, sarcastic and often charming presence. He is brilliant here. An aging movie star stuck in a lavish Japanese hotel. It is clear he doesn't really want to be there or be in the high-paying commercial. One suspects he has come to this fiscally smart but uncreative job more as a means of escape from an unhappy life waiting for him in the states.

Scarlett Johansson's young and somehow vacant face lend themselves perfectly for the film and her role as well. Charlotte is lonely, sad and lost. Basically she is just stuck in the hotel while her ambitious hipster husband is fame trolling throughout the city. He seems to have cut her off from his creative life.

When she meets Bill Murray's Bob, a fellow kinship is born out of a mutually-shared feeling of loneliness within context of an unknown culture and language. But clearly their bond is far more meaningful than that.

Coppola's film sort of drifts along with out two leading characters as they continue to grow close. When they are apart, the loneliness and seemingly bleak future of their family lives become more sharp.

In one of the smartest moves ever made by a filmmaker, Coppola avoids the trap of trying to form an actual "romance." Instead she settles for a un-labeled relationship and bond. Another smart move that actually has fueled this magical little movie for over a decade --- at one point Bob comes close to Charlotte and whispers something into her ear. It is something private. We never know what he has told her. It is their secret.

Simple and complex all at once, if Sofia Coppola never succeeds again -- this and her feature film debut, "The Virgin Suicides" are all she ever need do to hold her place as a filmmaker of note with a far more keen sense of film editing than her father has ever gained.

To me, Lost in Translation is a perfect film.