Review of Lost in Translation (2003) by Rafael B — 06 Aug 2014

Lost in Translation is one of the best romances I've seen. It's a very subtle film that explores the causes of, and the constraints on, a mature romantic relationship. The two main characters - one an actor with a mid-life crisis, the other a beautiful philosophy graduate recently wedded to a busy photographer - developed a bond out of shared loneliness and otherness in an alien place.

Neither of the two people seem to take the relationship seriously: they let their relationship grow, within the broad constraint imposed by the fact that they're both married, without expecting it to grow into anything.

This means that there's no cheesy artificial elements commonly taken to be compulsory in romantic films, such as scenes of blatant jealousy, supposedly unexpected but obviously arranged parting and searching for each other, and random overdramatic love-making.