Lost in Translation (2003)
I love, love, love this movie. There was no doubt this film would make my list as one of the forty best of the past decade. The question was simply where would I place it? I chose this category because I truly feel, at heart, this is a romantic film. For those of you who question whether or not this should be qualified as a romance, I ask you to view the film again and then write back to me telling me why it’s not.
There isn’t much I can say about this film that hasn’t been said before. Yes, Bill Murray is beyond phenomenal. Yes, ScarJo holds her own with Murray, and her performance is as beautiful as she is. Yes, Sofia Coppola makes up for her dreary performance in Godfather III by writing, and directing, such a great picture (she won a Best Original Screenplay Oscar).
The story is fairly simple. Bob Harris (Murray), a famous American actor, is in Japan shooting Japanese whiskey commercials. Charlotte (Johansson), a newlywed, is in Japan with her photographer husband. The two are both searching for something, and inadvertently find each other.
In my opinion, what makes this film great is that it subtly allows the audience to be drawn into the lives of these two characters. You feel what these characters feel, and yet you realize if you were in either of their shoes you have no idea what you would do. You also know what each character is saying, even though at times they don’t say a word (although I still would like to know what Murray whispers into Johansson’s ear during the film’s conclusion). There is no CGI, no dramatic action sequences. It is simply a story about two individuals, away from home, alone, trying to find someone, or something, to ground them.
The tagline reads “Everyone wants to be found.” If you haven’t found this film, you should.
I love, love, love this movie. There was no doubt this film would make my list as one of the forty best of the past decade. The question was simply where would I place it? I chose this category because I truly feel, at heart, this is a romantic film. For those of you who question whether or not this should be qualified as a romance, I ask you to view the film again and then write back to me telling me why it’s not.
There isn’t much I can say about this film that hasn’t been said before. Yes, Bill Murray is beyond phenomenal. Yes, ScarJo holds her own with Murray, and her performance is as beautiful as she is. Yes, Sofia Coppola makes up for her dreary performance in Godfather III by writing, and directing, such a great picture (she won a Best Original Screenplay Oscar).
The story is fairly simple. Bob Harris (Murray), a famous American actor, is in Japan shooting Japanese whiskey commercials. Charlotte (Johansson), a newlywed, is in Japan with her photographer husband. The two are both searching for something, and inadvertently find each other.
In my opinion, what makes this film great is that it subtly allows the audience to be drawn into the lives of these two characters. You feel what these characters feel, and yet you realize if you were in either of their shoes you have no idea what you would do. You also know what each character is saying, even though at times they don’t say a word (although I still would like to know what Murray whispers into Johansson’s ear during the film’s conclusion). There is no CGI, no dramatic action sequences. It is simply a story about two individuals, away from home, alone, trying to find someone, or something, to ground them.
The tagline reads “Everyone wants to be found.” If you haven’t found this film, you should.
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