LOST IN TRANSLATION Rating: (out of 5 stars) Director: Sofia Coppola Producers: Ross Katz, Sofia Coppola Writer: Sofia Coppola Director of Photography: Lance Acord Cast: Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Giovanni Ribisi, Anna Faris Visit the IMDB page for full cast and crew

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Review by: Warren Curry
9/7/03

Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides was a promising, if not fully realized, debut feature film. The atmospheric touches and director's control of mood and pacing definitely pointed toward much more interesting work to come. I certainly had quite a bit of optimism heading into Coppola's sophomore effort, but was in no way prepared for the wondrous, sense-enveloping beauty that is Lost In Translation.

Set in a surreal, almost otherworldly Tokyo, Bill Murray plays soon-to-be washed up American actor, Bob Harris, who's in the city to shoot a whiskey commercial for Japanese television. Staying at the same hotel as Harris is a young American couple, John (Giovanni Ribisi) and Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson). A celebrity photographer in Tokyo on assignment, John is constantly on the go, perhaps more in love with his work than he is with his wife. John's absentee status is having obvious effects on Yale-graduate Charlotte, who is battling with the familiar questions that all recent college graduates face, and now must also wonder about the condition of her marriage.

Plagued by insomnia, Charlotte and Bob meet at their hotel's bar -- a chance encounter that gradually blossoms into a friendship, which increases in intensity when John is called away to another Japanese city. Charlotte takes Bob out with her Japanese friends to experience various aspects of Tokyo's nightlife, from Karaoke bars to rather respectable looking strip clubs. A blissful escape from their respective problems -- Bob is also in a marriage that's expiration date appears long since passed -- the friendship eventually becomes tested due to its ambiguity; it's a strong bond that dances around inevitable feelings of romance.

Coppola crafts John and Charlotte's relationship perfectly. We are introduced to both characters as individuals before their friendship takes flight, allowing us to invest our feelings in them as a unit and as separate entities. Coppola's script is engagingly economical -- body language and facial expressions often speak a thousand words, shared moments of silence are able to communicate so much, and in one scene, the lyrics to songs both characters sing while performing Karaoke serve as a more comfortable mode of expression than a direct exchange of words.

Coppola wrote the role of Bob Harris specifically for Murray, and the actor absolutely shines. Even in the beginning scenes, which have a playful comic touch, there's something distinctly melancholy about his appearance and behavior -- almost as if flashes of humor are the man's only respite from a life quickly spiraling downward. In a way, Bob Harris is Murray's character from Wes Anderson's Rushmore explored on a more serious level. Scarlett Johansson completely imbues Charlotte with a palpable confusion and alienation -- her estrangement in the foreign land a microcosm of much larger personal issues. Both of these performances are magnificent.

The director's mastery of tone and atmosphere is astounding. Working with D.P. Lance Accord, Coppola's vision of Tokyo appears right out of a hazy dream -- people milling about all over, neon lights illuminating dark interiors and exteriors; a stark contrast to traditional visions of Japan, which, as the film seems to suggest, may be on their way to relic status. Coppola also brilliantly uses music (Kevin Shields of My Blood Valentine composed the score) to enhance the airy mood. The final scene, which created a lump in my throat the size of a boulder, plays out gorgeously to The Jesus and Mary Chain's haunting "Just Like Honey," a song that I've been a fan of for over 15 years, and never has it sounded so good.

Lost in Translation will require some patience for viewers who are more enamored of films that move with quick tempos, but each scene has a resonance that would be, at least partially, compromised if the movie proceeded at a faster clip. I'll also admit to being thrown off a bit by the mixing of divergent tones in the film's first half, but this ambitiousness proves to be one of its greatest assets. Lost in Translation is one of the best movies I've seen so far this year and a quantum artistic leap forward for Sofia Coppola. In the span of two unique films, she has, incredibly, worked herself out from under the imposing shadow that is cast when you're the daughter of one of the most accomplished filmmakers the world has ever known.

(A Focus Features release. Opens in New York and Los Angeles on September 12, 2003. Expands to more cities at later dates.)