Lost In Translation DVD > Reviews > Translates well

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Special Effects	Standard
How does it compare to similar films?	Not applicable

Advantages:	Great acting, good cinematography
Disadvantages:	Nothing really happens (but in a good way)

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Bob Harris is an ageing film star paid two million dollars to shoot an advert for a Japanese whisky “when I could be doing a play somewhere.” Charlotte is the wife of a hot young photographer, who accompanies him to Tokyo while she decides what to do with her life. They meet in a hotel bar and spark up a friendship based on their inability to understand the world they find themselves in. And that’s pretty much it. There aren’t any big explosions, car chases, kung fu or amazing revelations. If that’s what you’re after, go and watch a Matrix film. But if you like your films small and personal, then this could be the one for you.

Sofia Coppola comes from Hollywood royalty. Her father is Francis Ford Coppola, director of such film school fodder as “The Godfather” and “Apocalypse Now”. Her cousin is Nicolas Cage and her brother Roman is also in the business. It seems a little surprising then that she chooses to make such small films about nothing in particular. Her first movie was the critically acclaimed “Virgin Suicides,” which though engaging was hardly the most exciting or original film to have been made, borrowing heavily as it did from 1970s French Cinéma Vérité. Stylistically, her second film is much the same – we still feel like interlopers on a private situation, but the characters are really likeable, so we want to watch. Where she excels is in drawing out great performances from good actors. She has also managed to accurately sum up the sense of isolation you feel when you are on your own in a foreign country, without any real knowledge of the language or culture. She does this by inserting lots of shots of Scarlett Johansson gazing out of her enormous hotel window at the streets below, in absolute silence. There are also plenty of shots of her wandering through amusement arcades and temples, watching the Japanese without grasping the significance or mundanity of what they are doing and without taking part. It is this sense of separation that makes the relationship between the two characters plausible. When surrounded by the unfamiliar, one tends to seek out the familiar to reassure oneself.

There are two types of actors: those who look like they’re acting and those who are so good they look like they aren’t. Both Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray fall into the latter category. Murray is on fine form as Bob, playing him as a man who knows he’s sold out to the establishment, but is pretending that he doesn’t care. However, in a subtly layered performance, we can see the embarrassment he feels about perverting his art and his desire to break free from his normal life, and who can blame him when his entire marriage seems to be based on carpet samples and paint colours. In most scenes he is dry and witty rather than out and out funny, although he has a couple of opportunities for slapstick humour (most notably when he is trapped on an exercise machine that speaks only in Japanese and he can’t figure out how to turn it off). Mostly he comes across as a man who is determined not to understand because it is easy. It really isn’t that difficult to understand what someone is saying when they reverse their “Rs” and “Ls”. He has no interest in the culture of Japan and spends most of his time on his own in the hotel until he meets Charlotte, who offers him an insight into what it is to be young. And if you were a cantankerous middle-aged movie star past his sell-by date, wouldn’t you want to do the same.

Scarlett Johansson plays the role of Charlotte as a privileged twenty-something desperately searching for something, anything to define her life. She is a forlorn character set adrift in an alien world, who follows her husband to Japan in search of inspiration. She feels at odds with her livewire spouse who makes his money from photographing the current flavour of the month. She really wants there to be meaning in her life and she spends her time drifting around the city, yearning for something profound to give her direction. There is a sense of solitude and emptiness in her performance that is enhanced by the sparseness of dialogue and she is so comfortable and natural in front of the camera that it is almost as though we have happened on an incident in real life. She also brings a freshness and innocence to the role. The scene where she gets upset about not feeling anything after going to a shrine, when describing it to a friend over the phone, is one that stands out for me. In the hands of another actress the character may well have come across as an unsympathetic spoilt brat on a pretentious quest for, like, meaning in her life, but Johansson proves her mettle as one of the most talented young actresses to have emerged for a while. Let’s hope she doesn’t disappear into indie obscurity like her artistic counterpart, Lili Taylor.

Though this film is pretty much a two-hander, we can’t ignore the supporting cast. Giovanni Ribisi has made a name for himself as an intelligent actor over the past few years. He seems to have two modes – the dim comedy sidekick (see TV’s “Friends”) or the mature, if sombre supporting actor (see “Saving Private Ryan”). Here he has developed an entirely new character for his repertoire – the enthusiastic, hyperactive, creative prodigy. He doesn’t have much screen time, but what he has is full of manic energy and I can’t help but wonder if the character is based on Sofia Coppola’s soon-to-be ex-husband, Spike Jonze. Whatever the origins of the role, it is played convincingly and I think we’ll be seeing a lot more of Mr Ribisi over the years to come.

Anna Faris is best known for her comic turns in the questionable “Scary Movie” franchise. Here she breaks out and proves she can actually do character based comedy. Her turn as the terminally inarticulate and frankly dim blonde action starlet is pretty good and shows what she can do with decent material. It might be interesting to see what she could do with a starring role in a non-spoof film…

I would go into more detail about the Japanese cast members, but they get relatively little screen time and are such broad stereotypes that there isn’t really a lot to say about them, except that I would have expected a better-rounded characters from a supposedly intelligent director like Ms Coppola.

The cinematography throughout is spot on, framing the characters in empty spaces to underline their solitude or in areas crowded with either people or buildings to hint at the claustrophobia of their situation. Tokyo is also depicted as one of the most beautifully ugly places imaginable – ablaze with neon over a concrete structure, juxtaposed with ancient shrines and parks. It’s a city that celebrates superficiality – every surface is advertising a lifestyle in blinding colour, but it’s all underpinned by a sense of tradition. The film sums up that Japan is a land of contradictions and that much like the characters in the movie, is struggling to find its identity.

The one thing that disappoints me about this film is the score. Sofia Coppola is obviously a big fan of the French combo Air, but their electronic noodlings get on my nerves; it seems like such pointless, navel-gazing drivel (so some would say it’s ideally suited to this film) and for me, it didn’t really add anything to the film. However, there is the unusual treat of Bill Murray singing on the soundtrack and though he’s no Elvis, he’s no Cheeky Girl either.

Overall, this is a slight film based on a very slim premise and you’ll either love it or hate it. If you like well-crafted films that are based solely on good writing and perceptive performances, you’ll love it. If you prefer more bang for your buck and want to see a film that’s about more than the importance of brief but life-defining relationships and trying to find your identity, then you’ll hate it. As they say on “Blind Date,” the choice is yours…