Film Review: Lost in Translation
One word: Wow! Ladies and gentlemen, Sofia Coppola (the director) has arrived! This movie has awesome cinematography, awesome screenplay, awesome performances and awesome dialogues. Sounds like a dream, huh? Well, read on and decide for yourself…
The first shot, even before the titles roll out, is of the beautiful posterior of a woman lying on a bed, as seen through her translucent undies (not a sexist comment this. Just acknowledging a thing of beauty :)). And you instantly get a good feeling about the movie. Not just because of what the shot shows but also because of the lazy, laid-back way in which the camera gazes at it.
Bill Murray plays a Hollywood actor past his prime (there’s an irony for you!) who’s come down to Tokyo to do a whisky commercial. The first scene shows him checking into a hotel and being helped out by his to-be-escorts from the whisky company. The expression on his face for about the first half hour of the movie is one of extreme disinterest in everything. He is just going through the motions. He doesn’t sleep too fitfully. On a parallel track, we see Scarlett Johansson (it was her posterior in the first shot,you realise...:)) lodging at the same hotel, accompanying her newlywed husband on his business trip to Tokyo. We see that the guy is almost never around, and she’s worried that maybe marrying him wasn’t a good idea. She can’t sleep well either. But this is not to say that this part of the movie is sad. Bill with his dazed face is outrageously funny at times.
Bill meets Scarlett at the Hotel’s bar, both driven down there by their insomnia. Introductions are made, Bill plays the marriage counselor to Scarlett for a while, and they like each other and decide to meet again. And from that point on, you feel the spark between the two. They connect. And you see their previously disinterested faces suddenly infused with life. Suddenly, everything Bill says is funny. The guy’s on a roll! There’s one scene where the two are sitting in this Japanese restaurant where u sit right across the chef and he cooks your food in front of your eyes. Bill is making Scarlett roll on the floor with laughter but the chef’s expression is totally deadpan. And then Bill goes: ‘hey, what’s with the straight face?’ I laughed so hard at that!
Bill’s stay at Tokyo is drawing to a close. He’s done with the commercial. And you see the sadness set in through the beautifully expressive faces of Bill and Scarlett. There is a tragi-comical scene in the lift the night before Bill’s leaving. There’s an awkward silence and when the lift stops at Bill’s floor, he can’t figure out how to say goodbye. The lift starts moving up before he can decide. Both laugh at this and when it stops at Scarlett’s floor, all they can manage is a peck on the cheek and a mumbled goodbye. I won’t spoil it for you by disclosing the ending scene. The word closure comes to mind. When you reflect on the movie later on, you can’t help thinking that the ending is perfect.
A word or two on the technical aspects of the movie…The movie is very slow. My review is positive because I enjoy this sort of movies (consider this a warning if u don’t like slow movies…:)). When the actors are reflective, you know they are reflective because the camera freezes there to show the actors reflecting. I do not know what the technical name is but the camera uses a particular filter that lends a soft hue to everything. This movie is shot entirely with this filter. Everything’s shot with Japan and its vibrant, eccentric (I don’t mean this in a bad way) culture in the backdrop. The camera as well as the actors are just amused by it; they don’t make any value judgments about it. I think it’s a thin line and kudos to Sofia for pulling it off without crossing the line.
The first shot, even before the titles roll out, is of the beautiful posterior of a woman lying on a bed, as seen through her translucent undies (not a sexist comment this. Just acknowledging a thing of beauty :)). And you instantly get a good feeling about the movie. Not just because of what the shot shows but also because of the lazy, laid-back way in which the camera gazes at it.
Bill Murray plays a Hollywood actor past his prime (there’s an irony for you!) who’s come down to Tokyo to do a whisky commercial. The first scene shows him checking into a hotel and being helped out by his to-be-escorts from the whisky company. The expression on his face for about the first half hour of the movie is one of extreme disinterest in everything. He is just going through the motions. He doesn’t sleep too fitfully. On a parallel track, we see Scarlett Johansson (it was her posterior in the first shot,you realise...:)) lodging at the same hotel, accompanying her newlywed husband on his business trip to Tokyo. We see that the guy is almost never around, and she’s worried that maybe marrying him wasn’t a good idea. She can’t sleep well either. But this is not to say that this part of the movie is sad. Bill with his dazed face is outrageously funny at times.
Bill meets Scarlett at the Hotel’s bar, both driven down there by their insomnia. Introductions are made, Bill plays the marriage counselor to Scarlett for a while, and they like each other and decide to meet again. And from that point on, you feel the spark between the two. They connect. And you see their previously disinterested faces suddenly infused with life. Suddenly, everything Bill says is funny. The guy’s on a roll! There’s one scene where the two are sitting in this Japanese restaurant where u sit right across the chef and he cooks your food in front of your eyes. Bill is making Scarlett roll on the floor with laughter but the chef’s expression is totally deadpan. And then Bill goes: ‘hey, what’s with the straight face?’ I laughed so hard at that!
Bill’s stay at Tokyo is drawing to a close. He’s done with the commercial. And you see the sadness set in through the beautifully expressive faces of Bill and Scarlett. There is a tragi-comical scene in the lift the night before Bill’s leaving. There’s an awkward silence and when the lift stops at Bill’s floor, he can’t figure out how to say goodbye. The lift starts moving up before he can decide. Both laugh at this and when it stops at Scarlett’s floor, all they can manage is a peck on the cheek and a mumbled goodbye. I won’t spoil it for you by disclosing the ending scene. The word closure comes to mind. When you reflect on the movie later on, you can’t help thinking that the ending is perfect.
A word or two on the technical aspects of the movie…The movie is very slow. My review is positive because I enjoy this sort of movies (consider this a warning if u don’t like slow movies…:)). When the actors are reflective, you know they are reflective because the camera freezes there to show the actors reflecting. I do not know what the technical name is but the camera uses a particular filter that lends a soft hue to everything. This movie is shot entirely with this filter. Everything’s shot with Japan and its vibrant, eccentric (I don’t mean this in a bad way) culture in the backdrop. The camera as well as the actors are just amused by it; they don’t make any value judgments about it. I think it’s a thin line and kudos to Sofia for pulling it off without crossing the line.
posted by CogitoErgoConfusum at 10/08/2004 04:05:00 AM
2 Comments:
thats a decent review , i felt that growth of scarlett's loneliness was bit repetitive on me, could have edited few-couch-book-window-fan scenes.
nevertheless acting is superlative!
Hmmm, I loved this movie. So much.
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