Bill Murray has already received much press and praise for his performance in “Lost in Translation.” Such attention should not overshadow the fact that the film as a whole is truly beautiful.
Little extraordinary happens in this exceptional film. The audience therefore feels for the characters as they would for real people, not necessarily rooting for some particular outcome, but hoping for a happy resolution.
Writer/director Sophia Coppola (“The Virgin Suicides”) demonstrates her understanding of film and of life by presenting a story that defies simple plot formulae. Instead, she describes a real episode in the lives of two people.
Isolated in a lush Tokyo hotel, middle-aged actor Bob Harris (Murray, “The Royal Tennenbaums”) waits for the tedium of another commercial shoot. His whiskey endorsement deal promises a huge paycheck, but at the price of his sanity.
Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson, “Ghost World”) spends pensive time waiting for her husband (Giovanni Ribisi, “Heaven”) to find time for her between photoshoots. He is a photographer — a part of the superficial world that Harris tiredly endures and Charlotte knows herself to be above.
Coppola uses Tokyo as a backdrop like Woody Allen uses New York, only without the affection. There is a question as to whether Japanese culture is being parodied, or if the film is actually illustrating a self-parodying culture. In Tokyo, it seems every Japanese stereotype can find a home.
Bob and Charlotte are set apart by their ethnicity, but moreso by their out-of-place quality in the flashy Tokyo atmosphere. They wander around in various states of dejection until their inauspicious meeting in the hotel bar. The relationship that develops between them is a convincing friendship that hints at underlying, unfulfilled needs.
This film is not an advertisement for marriage; Harris’ phone conversations with his wife of 25 years are monotone and mundane, and Charlotte’s interaction with her husband is equally depressing. She seems alone even when they are together.
Many a film would leap to an absurd liaison between the two frustrated protagonists. But it is such superficiality that they are united against. Instead, there is the melancholy knowledge that what happens between them is necessarily limited and that the happiness they find in each other’s company is fleeting.
It should no longer be a surprise to anyone that Bill Murray can show the range he exhibits in this film. His performance in “Rushmore” garnered similar reactions for a role that is not far removed from this one. There is hope for all of us that aging does not have to limit our capacity for romance, happiness, and new experiences, but we face our responsibilities as a measure of our morality; we can only sacrifice so much for our own short-term pleasure.
“Lost in Translation” uses comedy for its natural purpose: to distract us from life’s inevitable drama. The clash between Harris’ deadpan sarcasm and Tokyo’s vivacity makes for some hilarious moments, but it is a sense of transitory happiness that pervades. The question is whether to embrace the happy moments or fret about their fleeting nature.
Grade: A
