Lost in Translation (2004, DVD)

A couple months ago, one of my friends and I were finally able to get together for the first time since I arrived back in Florida. Between finding babysitters, getting an attached boyfriend to leave us alone for a night and skirting around work schedules, we were finally able to have a girls night. We decided to stay home and watch movies all night. She s not much of a party girl and I was pretty tired so she whipped out Lost in Translation and popped it into the DVD player. I was a little skeptical about it but I decided to give it chance.

Bill Murray Bob Harris
Scarlett Johansson Charlotte
Giovanni Ribisi John
Akiko Takeshia Ms. Kawaski
Anna Faris Kelly
Fumihiro Hayashi Charlie

A sleepy Bob Harris falls asleep on the cab ride through the brightly lit city of Tokyo on the way to his hotel. He wakes up soon enough and stares out at the people and neon lights of the city. He is welcomed at the fancy hotel and is given gifts upon his arrival. But it seems he should not be the one to be receiving gifts, he receives a note from his wife telling him that he had forgotten his son s birthday.

Do I need to worry about you, Bob? Lydia Harris
Only if you want to. Bob

Later that night, Bob finds that he cannot sleep and wanders down into the hotel bar. He is distracted by two other Americans, who try to strike up a conversation with him. It seems that they had seen one of his movies and loved it.

We are also introduced to another married couple, Charlotte and John. It seems that John is a photographer and drug Charlotte to Tokyo to do some work. Charlotte is often bored with herself at the hotel all day. It s no different the next morning when John rushed off to work and Charlotte rides the elevator with Bob down to the lobby. It seems that Bob is filming a 2 million dollar Whiskey commercial that day. The commercial shoot doesn t go all that well because Bob cannot understand a word the director is saying.

That night Bob notices Charlotte sitting at her husband s table. It seems that he is working again, shooting the band. The next day, Bob and Charlotte both cannot sleep and end up in the bar. This time they finally get to talk to each other.

What are you doing? Bob
My husband's a photographer, so he's here working. I wasn't doing anything so I came along. Charlotte
What do you do? Bob
I'm not sure yet, actually. Charlotte

When John goes off to work and will not be back for a few days, Charlotte and Bob find solace in each other and spend most of their time together. What kind of friendship, or more, can develop between this unlikely couple?

~ Awards ~
Oscar for Best Writing Sofia Coppola
Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture
Golden Globe for Best Screenplay
Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor Bill Murray

Bonus materials include Lost on Location, Kevin Shields City Girl Music Video, deleted scenes, a conversation with Bill Murray and Sofia Coppola, and the theatrical trailer. Language selection includes English 5.1 Dolby and French 5.1. There are also captions for the hearing impaired and subtitles (French and Spanish).

I m sorry to say that I could not like this movie. I knew there was a reason why I didn t want to see this movie. Watching the trailer on TV didn t thrill me and I had no desire to watch Charlotte Johanson or an old looking Bill Murray in action. And of course I was not impressed at all with the opening shot which consisted of a woman s backside as she sleeps in bed. The woman is wearing underwear, but you could see right through them. Was it absolutely necessary for the film? Nope. What was the point? In my opinion it was the worse way to start off this movie. It just added to my belief that this movie was not going to be one that I enjoyed. Another thing is that Charlotte sits around in her pink underwear a lot something else that I figure was totally unnecessary. How people just sit around in there underwear all day?

I was pretty bored with both Johansson and Murray s performances. But if I have to pick between the two of them I d have to go with Murray. Not only does their characters have no substance, but the plot just plods along and doesn t help out at all. I couldn t bring myself to care about two people that didn t care about themselves. If Harris was so unhappy, he should have done something about his life with his wife. If Charlotte was so bored she should have done something more than sat around in a hotel room all day. There were not any other characters that struck me as integral to this movie. Giovanni Ribisi is barely there.

I understand that this movie contained no action and no adventure and can completely get into a sensitive movie, if the movie is interesting. But I couldn t find myself getting into Lost in Translation. The characters just seem overly desperate. But I can understand how these two lonely characters gravitated towards each other.

That s the only part of the movie that I did like, Coppola s ability to show the characters as lonely, even thought they are surrounded by so much in Tokyo. But otherwise, Coppola shows no talent by not introducing anything interesting into Lost in Translation. Writing something as boring as this movie must have been extremely easy. It s there that Coppola shows some insight because she was able to make tons of money with this movie that so many other found interesting.

Set in Japan, this movie had the potential to portray some great scenery but it somehow did not succeed. It seemed as those some jittery teenager had hold of the camera in this movie or someone with the shakes anyway. The camera was all over the place.

Unlike many reviewers here at Epinions, I simply cannot recommend this movie. I didn t enjoy the plot, I didn t enjoy the characters, and I just found the whole thing very boring.


Genre: Drama, Romance
Release Date: August 2003
Director: Sofia Coppola
Writer: Sofia Coppola
Rated: R
Running Time: 102 minutes


~ Happy Watching!

Kim