Lost in Translation - LetterboxD Review

Original Review Link

Lost in Translation is one of those films that I can still remember the first time I watched it at the cinema, the first time I watched it on DVD, the first time I saw it on TV, etc. It may have been in part that it struck a nerve, being released in the months after I returned from my first real stint backpacking (across the USA), it may have been that at the time, Scarlett Johansson was still and up and coming indie actress that only a few people had heard of and knew of her talent and potential, it may have been that it represented a career revival for personal favourite Bill Murray and it may also have been largely because 2 years earlier I had watched director Sofia Coppola's previous feature "The Virgin Suicides" and had loved every single second of it. Even before I had sat down to watch this, the signs were good.

There's still work to be done. Potential that fails would have provided an even greater disappointment than a film where you expect the worst and Lost in Translation, on paper at least, has(d) the potential to go horribly wrong.

A slow, deliberate character driven piece with little narrative to speak of, operating in that Catch 22 / Les Quatre Cents Coup sort of territory of narrative ambiguity where thing just happen, not to drive the plot directly but to engorge and enhance the characters so that by the end, we really feel like we know and care for them... (although the better examples do both)

By virtue of the 5 stars and its place in my top 4 films, the obvious question to ask is where did it all go right? Where to begin...

I guess you could sum it up by saying that in a film where Anna Farris actually adds to the enjoyment (by possibly sending herself up or more likely being sent up by a crafty and clever director) you know you're on to a winner. Farris is good, Giovanni Ribisi, fresh of the back of working as VO artist for Coppola in The Virgin Suicides is also good, Murray and Johansson are absolutely spell bindingly great.

I didn't quite get the 2nd scene, where Bob Harris (Murray) arrives into neon covered Tokyo at the dead of night, staring, misty eyes our of the back of his limo trying to comprehend this foreign, almost alien world. A few months before I saw this, I had been arriving into Greyhound bus stations in the middle of the night, lost, an alien in a foreign world stepping out of the ship into the unknown... Bob was me.

But then we meet Charlotte. A child who has been left abandoned and alone in a foreign world where her partner, too busy to notice her cries for attention (wandering through him wearing nothing but pants and a t-shirt anyone?) because he is too absorbed by his own little world. (I love the fact that LIT never judges anyone... they have their quirks and they have their faults but they are, at heart, good people with good values). The nuances of having travelled along crop up so frequently yet so subtley that you may miss them...

The need to feel something. The desperation to share something be it a secret, an insecurity or a weakness or even an experience or a moment. Lost in Translation is filled with moments. Little beats that could resonate deeply with anyone who has travelled.

Beyond all of its philosophical reasoning, Lost in Translation is a triumph of its characters. We care deeply for Charlotte and Bob because they are both believable and likeable and so brilliantly realised through the strong performances.

I love Lost in Translation and it truly is one of those films I could watch over and over again. If I ever create a list of films you could watch back to back... this will be very high up because although its pacing is slow and deliberate, it feels like it flies by.

If you haven't seen this, its one I would highly recommend.

Unsurprisingly, I rated this movie 5 stars out of 5.
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