Lost in Translation (2003)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Bob Harris	Bill Murray	½
Charlotte	Scarlett Johansson	½
John, Charlotte's Husband	Giovanni Ribisi	½
Kelly	Anna Faris	½
Charlie	Fumihiro Hayashi	-
Lounge singer	Catherine Lambert	-

Review

Sofia Coppola's non-plot-driven Lost in Translation has much more in common with the works of Éric Rohmer than with the American rom-coms the film may have competed with for viewers back in 2003. It explores alienation and loneliness in a more fundamental, literary manner than had been done in a long time in mainstream movies, and Coppola demonstrated her uncompromising, fluidic directorial style, winning several accolades and awards in the process. The relationship between Bob Harris (Bill Murray) and Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) is wonderfully unorthodox, floundering and lifelike. Feeling alone and cut-off in their mutual Tokyo hotel, most everything begins to feel alien and ridiculous to them – from Japanese customs and culture, and their respective partners rambling on about trivialities, to an entertainment industry which seems increasingly superficial. Still, the two are full of differences, as Murray and Johansson themselves would have been at the time, but in many ways they let themselves become more intimate than you've ever seen two people get on film. Their unconventional friendship/romance is explored completely without prejudice by Coppola, before she wraps it all up with one of the most classy endings in the history of romantic movies. The balanced combination of maturity and vulnerability in Johansson's performance belies the actress' tender age of 17 at this point. A great soundtrack serves as the icing on the cake.