Lost in Translation, directed by Sophia Coppola, is a film about two completely different strangers who, while feeling lost in the world and in their own lives, end up meeting at the hotel in Tokyo where they both happen to be staying. It proves to be intelligent, witty, and very personal without feeling slow-paced or aloof. I highly recommend this one.
Bob Harris, played by Bill Murray, is a famous actor who, desperate for work, has flown to Tokyo to do a series of commercials and ads for a whiskey company. Arriving in the middle of the night due to the time difference, he is greeted at his hotel by the company entourage, who fill his arms with small gifts and business cards, and a hand-written fax from his wife telling him he has forgotten his son’s birthday. After a failed attempt at understanding anything he sees on Japanese TV, he lies awake in his bed, wide awake despite the local hour, listening to the soothing sounds of the fax machine slowly spitting up another handwritten fax from his wife about book cases for his office.
Charlotte, played by Scarlett Johansson, is the wife of a photographer named John who has flown to Tokyo to work with the music industry there. When he is out working, Charlotte sits around the hotel room listening to self-help CDs. She doesn’t have a job, just finished a philosophy degree, and has no idea what she wants to do with her life anymore. She hasn’t been able to sleep at night, either, and both she and Bob end up spending a lot of time in the hotel bar.
Both their feelings of isolation increase as the film continues. Charlotte can’t get John to stop talking about work for five minutes to even look at her. She calls one of her friends back home and tries to tell her she doesn’t feel like she knows John anymore, but her friend is distracted by something on the other end and Charlotte can’t work up the courage to say it again. At one point in the movie she and John bump into a ditzy, air-headed actress that John knows from college, and it’s hard for Charlotte to watch him all but lavish her with attention and shrug off the fact that she’s dumb as a brick.
Meanwhile all of Bob’s photo shoots are a struggle to understand what the hell the camera man wants from him. He sticks out of every crowd like a sore thumb and, everywhere he turns, the polite company entourage is waiting for him. At one point he is visited by a woman the company sent to his hotel room, who, after getting him to touch her stockings, starts to flail around in a wonderfully dedicated simulation of completely unfocused panic, alternately yelling for him to stop or not to let her go. Having no idea what to do, he tries to help her up and gets knocked into a lamp.
Eventually the two of them meet in the hotel bar. They find they can actually talk to each other, and they are both desperate for someone they can relate to. Before too long, Charlotte invites Bob to come out to a bar with her and some of her friends. It turns into an exciting night of meeting new people, getting chased out of the bar with a pellet gun, hanging at someone’s pad, and hitting up a karaoke bar. Before either of them know it, they become close friends.
After that, they start hanging out together all the time, whether it’s lunch at a nearby cafe or deciphering late-night TV in Bob’s room. When he finds out she broke her toe, Bob even takes her to the hospital where, of course, neither of them have any idea what anyone is saying. Subtitles are never provided in this movie.
In the moments between, they both try to figure out what the hell they’re supposed to do now. Bob has several strained conversations with his wife on his cell phone, and Charlotte takes a train to Kyoto and wanders, lost in thought, around the temple district. Bob even agrees to a ridiculous Japanese talk show, on which he makes a total ass of himself because it’s obvious he has no idea what’s going on, just to stay in Japan a few more days.
Eventually, though, Bob has to fly home. He misses his children and he knows he just doesn’t fit in Japan. They both go their separate ways, but something wonderful happens before they do. Something I’m not going to tell you about. Because I’m a jerk.
The cinematography in this movie is awesome. Tokyo is not portrayed as a raging stampede of extreme Japanese behaviour, but instead it comes alive through this movie as a living, breathing place, whether the scene is set in a beautiful temple, a grimy back-alley arcade, or a tired, sterile hospital waiting room. There are lots of things in Japan that we think of as weird, but in the end, it’s a place filled with people just going about their lives like everywhere else. It’s nice to see that in an American movie for once.
The characters Bob and Charlotte, in the capable and loving hands of Murray and Johansson, really come to life. You feel like you intimately know these people and they feel so real you could almost forget what you’re watching is a work of fiction. Both Charlotte and Bob feel like people you could meet on any given day just walking around on the street.
Roger Ebert said it best when he said, in his review about this movie, that it encompasses the often conflicting nature of our thoughts and emotions. This movie, and the characters in it, can’t be summed up with one or two-word emotions. The film itself is complex and has multiple layers of meaning. Ultimately, this movie refuses to crap out and give you the kind of drek you find in the so-called “romantic comedy” genre. There are no simplified reactions, no childish temper tantrums, and no easy answers. I thought it might turn out to be a highbrow “romantic comedy,” but instead, it was a meaningful movie that was both sweet and endearing. It’s easily now one of my favorite movies.
Also, just so you know before you rent it, there is a nude strip club scene which both Bob and Charlotte vacate as soon as they get the chance.
5/5 Urgently Fedex’ed Carpet Samples
Plot 1, because everything about this story is nuanced and truly endearing
Narrative 1, because the pacing is excellent and everything serves to reveal to us these people’s lives and feelings without holding up the romantic-comedy placards that read “You should feel sad now!”
Characterization 1, because both Charlotte and Bob manage to be very, very real people without being either Johansson or Murray.
Production 1, because the camera work is great and the shots themselves tell us a great deal about the character’s thoughts and feelings.
Sump’n Sump’n 1, because this movie manages to be completely absurd when it wants to be without drawing attention away from the main focus.
Lotus Reviews 