01/25/10 - Lost in Translation

Lost in Translation (2003, 102 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0335266/

This is one of those "artsy" movies that were big when they came out then somewhat faded away to be regarded as semi-cult movies. I mean, sure, lots of people know of Lost in Translation but it's also found its home in some niche area that's pretty hard to describe. Anyway, I'd heard tons of good things about Lost in Translation so I was looking forward to it.

The film stars Scarlett Johansson as Charlotte and Bill Murray as Bob Harris. Both of these people end up in Japan: Charlotte with her husband John (Giovanni Ribisi) and Bob Harris doing commercials and promotions as an actor. They meet and form a bond between themselves.

The acting here is okay at best. I'm actually a huge fan of Giovanni Ribisi as he is good in pretty much everything I've ever seen him in. And this is no exception. Ribisi has a pretty small role but he's really good in commanding the screen during these few times. Sadly, I think Johansson and Murray aren't that great here. Murray seems to do really amazing half the time while the other half he seems to be phoning in the role. It's odd. Johansson seems in a similar boat. Half the time I get the feeling she's just really involved in the role and her character and the rest of the time she's just kind of there.

The problem with this movie really stemmed from multiple points. First, as I mentioned above, the acting is just okay. I mean, when Murray and Johansson are "on" during the same scene, it's really really good. But that doesn't happen that much. Apparently, the karaoke scene is supposed to be one of the highlights of the film so maybe many people saw this as an example of this but I really didn't. It was just another scene in an overall boring show. I felt like I was similarly just kind of meandering around in the movie with no whim to where I really ended up.

The director of Lost in Translation is Sophia Coppola, the daughter of Francis Ford Coppola who directed The Godather series. Now, in The Godfather and also in The Godfather: Part II, Coppola many times lingers on a scene after all the action is over. Sometimes really long (see the long stare into Michael Corleone's eyes in The Godfather: Part II). It seemed that Sophia Coppola tried to do the same thing here. There were setup shots for scenes and other times where the scene would last a second or two longer than it should have. I don't know if this was trying to be like her dad or unintentional, but I noticed it and felt it detracted at times.

The movie also came off to me as overly gimmicky. I felt like many times the whole point that Japan was very different from America was unnecessary and had already been made previously. I understood the point that some of these scenes made early on and didn't need to have them revisit me an hour later, just in case I missed the point the first time or something. However, this is not to say that I disliked the entire Japan setting. Many times it was used in a cool way, like just watching Charlotte in the taxi with all the neon billboard signs reflected all around. I liked these touches.

I really wanted to like this movie. I mean it had Bill Murray in it, it had Scarlett Johnasson at possibly her most attractive ever, and it seemed to have a cool story. But everything just didn't mesh up well together. The Bob Harris character never really made me connect with him. But I did like some of the scenes that really showed Bob and Charlotte connecting. Most notably there was the one where they were both just laying on the bed on their backs looking up and talking about life and marriage. This featured a really long take that I thought was really well done.

Overall, I gave this film a 4/10. There were some times where I got really caught up in the film and just loved it. But these times weren't all that frequent. As I said above, I really wanted to like this film as it could have been so much better. I also wanted to forgive Sophia Coppola for that atrocious acting of hers in The Godfather: Part III. But this will have to wait until some other day.