Lost In Translation (10/10) Revisited

"Getting lost has never felt so good." Thelma Admas wrote this in her review of this masterpiece and she is absolutely right. It's a film to just forget about what's happening around you and live in the character's life. Sophia Coppola has built very interesting people, some qualities just made up and others from her life. However like her we all feel stuck every know and then. Not to sure what to do next.

Bob Harris (Bill Murray) is a actor past his prime and is now doing advertisement for "Suntory Whisky". However this means traveling to Japan (more specifically Tokyo) to do a commercial and some photo shoots. It's hard to specify why Bill Murray is great, "he just is" doesn't cut it. To start I'd say his performance is just so natural, it's hard to see the lines where Bill ends and Bob begins. However to say he is just playing himself doesn't work either. Honestly it's just as appropriate to say you never see him not acting, not a single break in character. Whatever it is, the little gestures and glances he gives completes his character. It's a tour de force on unprecedented quality. Bob is having problems with his wife and children and feels down.

Charlotte (a brilliant performance by Scarlet Johansson) is a young women lost as well in Tokyo. She followed her husband John (Giovanni Ribisi) to the city out of sheer boredom. John is a photographer and is there for work so he is away a lot allowing (or maybe cursing her) to wander the city alone. She is not depressed but just doesn't know what she is doing in life. She meets Bob by chance on several occasions until she invites him out one night as she goes to meet some friends. The chemistry they share is fantastic. Their differences in age, attitude and what ever is made up for in clear communication and understanding. It's not often you meet someone that understands what you have say perfectly.

"Lost In Translation"'s title should say what the movie is about, but so few come to terms with it right away. The film talks about what exactly we express and how others take it. For example two tourists see Bob in the hotel bar and begin to converse with him. They are ecstatic to see celebrity there, Bob is uncomfortable and doesn't want to talk with them (either he doesn't like talking about his fame or just nobody in general). Another scene shows Bob on the phone talking to his wife. He wants to change a few things to get him out of this route, but his wife doesn't understand. She thinks he is hostile because he wants change and she reacts aggressively. We don't know how others take everything we say, but they do take it in a certain light.

"Lost In Translation" is what a film should be. There isn't a quality I can say something negative about. Hell I can find importance in every scene there is. Tokyo is a marvelous city and is the perfect place for such a story. Bob and Charlotte form a bond over the short time together like it was meant to be. They both stand out in the city and it's like seeing the person you've been waiting for all this time. Their relationship is more spiritual than anything else. There is some physicality to it, but it's more curiosity than anything else. Their time will have to end and both know it. How could they continue afterwards? Email, meeting each other every now and then or running off together? Nothing would work and while sad about it coming to a close, they enjoy the time they have together. The ending is so sublime that there is no other way to do it once you see it. It may just be the greatest ending ever in fact. It's up for debate but this is a headliner in that topic. "Lost In Translation" is something to lose yourself in.

10/10
Recommendation: It's very slow, but that is deliberate. This is a work of art that should be seen.