Lost In Translation (2003)

When has-been movie star Bob Harris (Bill Murray) travels to Japan to scrape a small fortune for a whisky advert, he finds comfort in Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson), a newlywed many years his junior who shares the aimlessness that has dominated his life.

What sort of film opens on an image of Scarlett Johansson’s ass? I mean, don’t get me wrong, Scarlett is a complete and utter babe but it just seems…strange. I’m unsure what Director Sofia Coppola was attempting to achieve. Maybe something artsy? Or maybe she just wanted something other than credits to captivate the audience…

Bob Harris sits in the back of a Japanese taxi sliding down the highway parallel to the absurdly bright town of Tokyo. Slowly, some gentle and soothing music kicks in and alters the tone of the scene massively. The pounding city lights blur past the taxi juxtapose the calm music to create an entirely different mood. May seem like a small point, but it’s one of the more beautiful transitions ever committed to film.

It’s a simple thing to film, but there is something unsettlingly hysterical about seeing Bill Murray in an elevator surrounded by Japanese men all of whom are at least a foot shorter than him. It’s really nice to see film-makers having fun with culture, something that just about everybody has been afraid to do for a long time in the fears that it could spark of some major international incident. From remarkably low shower heads to a running machine that cannot be stopped, it seems that Bob samples everything that could be different from what he’s used to in the west and watches it fall apart in front of him.
However, once again, a series of darkly lit establishing shots with some slow (and frankly depressing) music manage to set up a mournful slow mood for when necessary.

Charlotte however seems to have everything working for her but possibly in too well a way. She immediately seems unappreciated by her photographer husband and her reasons for coming to Japan are as simple as “I had nothing better to do.” Seeking fulfilment, Charlotte makes her way to a nearby shrine and watches a number of monks and nuns engaging in some kind of ritual, but as she later states she feels nothing. She’s numb.
It seems only too perfect then that Bob is having the same issue, albeit along with a few other problems. There are a few memorable scenes, one of which involves a hooker trying to, for lack of a better word, force Bob to have sex with her. It really is one of the funniest scenes ever, as the woman rolls around on the ground screeching “Oh, no Mr. Harris, I just want you to rip my stockings.”, whilst tripping him over. It’s up amongst the funniest intercultural exchanges ever.

It really takes a while for Bob and Charlotte to truly notice each other. Both Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson seem to have under-acting down to an art form and when they do meet, that under-acting really makes the raw dialogue feel more natural. Sometimes what they are saying breaches the realms of believability slightly but there isn’t a line within the entire film that goes so far as to feel ‘romantic’ as such.

Something great about the film is that it feels real. It’s very unconventional, in the way of the script and the simplistic techniques in the way of shots and angles, but it’s a realistic idea and one that, although at first hard to comprehend, is perfectly plausible. There really is something strange about the unconventional realism that Sofia Coppola seems to be trying to employ.
Rather than using metaphorical situations and strategies, Lost in Translation uses more realistic techniques in order to convey depth. Rather than delving too deep, everything is shown as it is, and as such although the film is set in a different country and culture to the primary audience, the idea of real events really keeps the feeling of depth around.

The idea of being in another culture is used very well and is seen as a way for the two leads to realise what they dislike around their lives, and this of course makes them feel more and more distant from those around them. It’s a great idea for these two people, decades apart in age, to bond through their distance and to feel comfortable as they are in a similar position to each other. Although not once throughout the entire film is there a ‘threat’ as such, but despite that there is the deep sincere feeling that both Bob and Charlotte are saving each other, if not only from wandering through the rest of their lives aimlessly.

Every film has its flaws, and it’s a shame to say that Lost in Translation loses its appeal pretty quickly, not because it gets repetitive but because about 40 minutes is the subtle quiet humour is abruptly shifted to a loud scenic night life. There’s certainly a fun atmosphere all around these scenes but it’s in such contrast to what the film was for so long that it feels very much out of place. Another major flaw, revolving around this problem is that the camera actions don’t reflect the craziness of the Tokyo nightlife. The shots and angles are very much in the same vein as the slow funny scenes as earlier on and generally, it doesn’t fit. That said, the music throughout the film, although not to my own tastes is superb in terms of reflecting the on screen action or creating juxtaposition to match the context of the situation. And also when the plot moves away from the ‘fun night life’ scenes, the cinematography begins reflecting what the moods of the characters are and the direction the story is going.

It seems that the more the film progresses so do the characters. It’s very much a character driven film and there isn’t a great deal of plot to follow. Sometimes the characters are happy to just know each other and that is the sort of feeling which really helps the film move forward,

A great example of a character driven film with subtly but hysterical humour. However, it does begin to trail off at times, so can seem a bit long around the middle.

3/5