Review

Review Date: 21-September-03
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Just OK

Lost in Translation (2003)

I have always liked movies about two people coming together and changing each other's lives in ways that don't require them ever to meet again. I also like movies that tell powerful stories without making a lot of noise. Some might think, therefore, that I would love Sofia Coppola's "Lost in Translation," an understated film about two Americans who form a momentous friendship during a week's visit to Japan. But I didn't love this movie precisely because it dances around but doesn't quite attain either of these two qualities. Despite excellent performances by the leads, "Lost in Translation" fails to resonate deeply because it is too enigmatic about its implications and too languid for its own good.

The movie centers on a middle-aged movie star named Bob (Bill Murray), who has come to Tokyo to film a whiskey commercial, and a young woman named Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson), who is accompanying her photographer husband on a business trip. As travel often does, their time away from home causes them to examine their lives, and neither feels satisfied with what they see. Since they both have a lot of time on their hands (particularly since they can't sleep), each takes to lounging around the bar and pool at their hotel, and before too long the strangeness and loneliness of their situations bring them together. Their easy friendship becomes a haven from the strain of reality, an alternate universe where they can offer each other companionship without complications and leave the worrying for another place and time.

Writer/director Coppola weaves a heady atmosphere from her exotic location, and this heightens the sensation that Bob and Charlotte are sharing a special, once-in-a-lifetime experience. Yet "Lost in Translation" relies too much on mood, which relegates the characters into ambiguousness or banality. All of the minor players, including Bob's unseen wife and Charlotte's callow husband, are broadly depicted as fools, which feels like a dubious circumstance fabricated to explain the stars' need for escape. Apart from their marital troubles and an unfortunate profusion of morons, we don't see clearly what has brought Bob and Charlotte to such a state of doubt, what dreams or desires they might harbor or, more importantly, whether they have the strength and daring to pursue them. Their mid- and early-life crises would have little impact were it not for the actors' unique and compelling faces, which force the viewer to look closely at people who seem strongly inclined to fade into the background. Murray displays a few of his trademark comic expressions, but for the most part his countenance is a study of weariness and capitulation, with the merest tinge of as-yet-untrammeled hope. Johansson is utterly lovely in what will likely be her breakthrough role, using her quiet, natural beauty to paint a portrait of a woman secure in herself but adrift in the world around her. Without the innate appeal of the stars, however, "Lost in Translation" would flounder in its ambiance and detachment; as it is, while the characters may have found themselves at the end, the viewer is left reaching for something more.

But have they found themselves at the end? Bob's final words to Charlotte are left a mystery, sending them back into the tide of real life with smiles on their faces and leaving the viewer to wonder what will become of them and, in fact, what the movie was all about. Call me obtuse or shortsighted, but Coppola's resolution --- if resolution it was --- felt like a cop out to me. Is "Lost in Translation," like "Roman Holiday," about romantic friends sharing a stolen moment and then leaving each other behind? Or is it more like "Before Sunrise," where hearts have been pledged but choices are still to be made? The lack of clarity on this point may jibe with the movie's overall feeling of jet lag confusion, but it denies viewers the payoff they deserve for going along for the ride. We don't need to know (indeed, who can know?) exactly what will happen in the future, but it would be satisfying to discover what the message was we were trying to translate.

Copyright © 2003 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.