Lost in Translation: a fitting title for a film about being figuratively lost in life, unsure anymore about what we want and need to make life enjoyable and fulfilling again. Writer/director Sofia Coppola, while contemplating what direction to take her own life in, often traveled to Tokyo to live and to work. Eventually settling on a career like her father’s she began writing scripts beginning with a short segment in the compilation film New York Stories. By 1999 she made her feature film directorial debut with the critically lauded but only mildly successful The Virgin Suicides, a psychological romantic drama. While promoting that film she retreated back to her love of Tokyo and returning there inspired her to make her next picture in the most populous city in the world. It would encompass both the culture shock a foreigner would feel being in such a vastly different world as well as the emotional shock a person feels when feeling disconnected from the life they live in. Feeling lost is a universal emotion that we all have at one time or another and it is this feeling that is the emotional backbone of her film.
Bob Harris (Bill Murray) is in Tokyo to film a handful of commercials and photoshoots to promote Suntory’s Hibiki whisky. His once prosperous career as a film actor has been fading and, while the pay is very good, he doesn’t want to be there and plans to leave Tokyo as soon as he can. His life at home isn’t much better, though, and he finds himself emotionally detached from his overbearing wife and their children while simultaneously going through a midlife crisis. His plans to quickly return home are upended when invited to stay a while longer by the commercial director. He wants to decline but is pressured to accept the invitation by his agent.
Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson), another American in Tokyo, is there with her husband John (Giovanni Ribisi), a celebrity photographer on assignment. The two have been married for a couple of years but she has recently begun questioning her life, her education and her marriage, none of which stimulate her anymore. This latest trip only further depresses her and she feels lost and alone in an unfamiliar city thousands of miles away from everyone she knows. Her husband is of no help, leaving her alone all day while he is off on assignment.
These two lost souls find each other in the hotel bar and strike up a friendship of sorts as each navigates a difficult part of their lives. Their relationship, while plutonic, does have a sense of intimacy that doesn’t exist with long term acquaintances. Certain things can be said in such situations that can go unelaborated when being said to a stranger over a drink at a bar. These things are just understood. These two meet and a cynical movie goer will immediately assume at some point they will end up in bed together. A lesser filmmaker would have gone that route despite the rather large age gap between them. After all, the richer and more successful someone is the younger their romantic partner, right? But this film is smarter than that. They, over the course of the short time they have together, will share something a lot more intimate than mere sex.
This film was made at a time when Bill Murray was trying to have a more serious career, jettisoning his self-built comedic persona and playing a fully realized character. He is playing a man who no longer feels the zest for life, working for the sake of the pay and hating himself for it. His wife calls and there is no passion there. He loves his children, and sees children in general as miracles, but age and life itself have beaten him down. Charlotte’s life is just barely getting going and she feels many of the same things. Her husband has brought her along for a business trip but he treats her like unwanted baggage, leaving her at the hotel while he is out working all day. When he bumps into a celebrity that actually knows him by name he is flattered and a little star-struck, making arrangements to have drinks with her assuming Charlotte will not want to come along.
Bob and Charlotte are fundamentally sad characters seeking solace in familiarity in a strange city. There are scenes upon scenes of Charlotte just walking the streets of Tokyo, observing people in pachinko parlors, watching people playing all sorts of games from video game electric guitar to gambling. Bob is so burned out from his work that he almost sleep walks through his commercial takes, frustrated with the language and social barriers that make pleasing the director confusing and frustrating. The director spouts long sentences in Japanese that get distilled down to brief stage direction by the translator leaving his to wonder what nuances he is missing in the translation. As he spends more and more time with Charlotte he loosens up more, but his stoic exterior never fully slips. He’s paid to be jovial and can’t quite bring himself to be that way when not on the clock. It’s not until he has to leave and go home, saying goodbye to Charlotte on a crowded street in the city, that he’s finally able to genuinely smile again, a bittersweet smile shared between two fundamentally sad people that made each other happy again, at least for a short while.
Sofia Coppola never was interested in being an actress herself. Growing up in the family that she did, surrounded by famous acting relatives Talia Shire and Nicholas Cage as well as her director father Francis Ford Coppola, she had her share of moments in front of the screen, most notoriously in The Godfather, Part III. Acting was not her strong suit nor was it her passion. Fortunately she had the opportunity to find what that passion was and the resources to make it happen. She is an excellent writer and director, able to explore the nuances of personal relationships and the complexities of the human experience. Her time in Tokyo gave her an intimate understanding of what it is like being a stranger in a strange land experiencing extreme culture shock. All of this gives this story an authenticity of someone who has been there before. Pair that with some superb performances by both leads and you have a truly great movie about being human.
There is something for nearly everyone in Lost in Translation. We’ve all been frustrated with our lives from time to time. All of us have metaphorically been lost in search for direction. Sometimes we find a similarly lost soul to share part of that journey with. Often times, though, we just soldier on through it, hoping things will improve with time and experience. These types of acquaintances rarely last long, at least not physically. But they do live on in our hearts and we remember fondly that person who shared a small part of our lives and helped make it bearable for a while. Lost in Translation speaks to me on that level and helps me value even more those moments that helped me navigate my life and got me to where I am today. It’s smart ; often wryly funny; but, more importantly; it’s honest.
Academy Award Nominations:
Best Picture: Sofia Coppola and Ross Katz
Best Director: Sofia Coppola
Best Actor: Bill Murray
Best Original Screenplay: Sofia Coppola (won)
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Release Date: September 12, 2003
Running Time: 102 Minutes
Rated R
Starring: Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Giovanni Ribisi and Anna Faris
Directed By: Sofia Coppola
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