With her 1999 debut film The Virgin Suicides, Sofia Coppola burst onto the cinematic scene as a writer and director who knows how to get her vision from the page to the screen. For the following four years, she was endlessly compared to and measured against her father, Francis Ford Coppola. With Lost in Translation, the younger Coppola has proven without a doubt that she is a great filmmaker, and more than worthy of a last name that will put unfairly high expectations on every film with which she’s involved. This film is an amazing mood piece that captures the characters’ inner turmoil, confusion, restlessness and the strange, surreal surroundings that are the cause for their discord.
Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson flawlessly portray Bob and Charlotte, two Americans who meet in Tokyo, disoriented by jet lag and the unfamiliar culture surrounding them and unhappy, not because of the status of their lives, but because they have lost themselves in a foreign land that frightens and bewilders them. Despite its initial implications, the film never approaches xenophobia and in fact makes it clear that it is the characters’ separation from the familiar and comfortable that leads to their desperation. There is a good deal of care taken to show their attempts to find unity in their environment – among other things, Charlotte visits a Buddhist temple and Bob makes an appearance on a Japanese television talk show – but these attempts not only fail to help them but actually increase the gap between themselves and their loved ones. Their spouses seem to represent their former selves – the ones they left behind at home before arriving in Tokyo and to whom they will likely return when they part.
Coppola is obviously not interested in the characters per se – the little background information given about Charlotte and Bob is important only in the context of their current relationship – but rather with their mutual experience of redefining themselves through a friendship that transcends age, physical appearance, or any other factor that would seem important to every other character in the film. Apparently, Coppola has been to Tokyo many times and it is clear that she has an understanding of the inexplicable effects of long-distance travel on the human mind. The experience of losing one’s bearings over such distances is portrayed wonderfully and the characters’ inability to resituate themselves in their new environment is painfully realistic. In a place where everything feels unnatural, Bob and Charlotte could only be comfortable with one another.
The atmosphere in Lost in Translation is dreamlike, accentuating the characters’ internal feelings and how they see their surroundings, rather than simply showing the city as it really is. These two characters have found each other in this dream and are reminded that life is about the great moments, and that everything in-between exists only as a bridge to the next beautiful experience. When their journey is over, Bob and Charlotte will likely never speak again, but they will be forever connected because of this experience, no matter where it leads in the future.
Sofia Coppola is a rising star, and this is definitely one of the best films of 2003.- Jamie Gillies
An amazing mood piece that captures the characters’ inner turmoil, confusion, restlessness and the strange, surreal surroundings that are the cause for their discord.- Derek Smith
