Perfectly acted. Immeasurably funny. A great second outing for director Sofia Coppola.
Lost in Translation (2003)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:214
Fresh:203
Rotten:11
Average Rating:8.4/10
Consensus: Murray gives one of his best performances in this expertly crafted mood piece.
Theatrical Release:09-01-2004
Synopsis: Sofia Coppola's second feature-length film focuses on two guests at a Tokyo hotel--Bob (Bill Murray), a middle-aged actor in town to film whiskey commercials, and Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson),... Sofia Coppola's second feature-length film focuses on two guests at a Tokyo hotel--Bob (Bill Murray), a middle-aged actor in town to film whiskey commercials, and Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson), the young wife of a trendy photographer (Giovanni Ribisi) who is always out on a shoot. When Bob isn't on the job taking fragmented direction from the Japanese crew, he's receiving faxes on home decorating from his emotionally distant wife. And while her husband is away, Charlotte spends most of her time trying to motivate herself to do more than look out the window at Tokyo's urban sprawl. So when the two meet in the hotel bar, they strike up an unusual friendship, one that provides a welcome escape from their boredom and loneliness. With LOST IN TRANSLATION, Coppola cements her reputation as a thoughtful and inventive filmmaker. Every element of the movie is pitch-perfect, from the dreamy, atmospheric score to the expertly timed editing to the lingering shots of the characters and the city. Most importantly, Coppola's minimalist script allows Murray and Johansson to give astonishingly moving yet subtle performances as people who are lost in the limbo of a foreign country, but find each other for comfort and companionship. Both heartbreakingly sad and hilariously funny, Coppola's LOST IN TRANSLATION is that rare movie in which everything is in its right place. [More]
Starring: Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Giovanni Ribisi, Anna Faris
Starring: Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Giovanni Ribisi, Anna Faris, Fumihiro Hayashi, Yutaka Tadokoro
Director: Sofia Coppola
Director: Sofia Coppola
Screenwriter: Sofia Coppola
Producer: Sofia Coppola, Ross Katz
Studio: Focus Features
Reviews for Lost in Translation
A magnificent picture because it specifically goes out of its way to avoid the clichés and elements would usually expect to see when watching this kind of boy meets girl movie.
Like so many things made in Japan, Sofia Coppola's new film is smaller and less costly than its standard American counterpart while at the same time superior in most important respects.
From the casting choices to the soul-soothing musical score to glimpses into Japanese visual culture, it’s obvious that Sofia pays careful attention that each element of the film stands strong alone, but can also contribute to the whole.
[Murray] can still do more with a raised eyebrow than anyone since Groucho Marx, but he's mellower and sometimes slightly poignant.
This is an exquisite movie on every possible level, from the script and direction to the performances to the cinematography.
...charged with some of the same inchoate longing of Hiroshima, Mon Amour and employs some of the same guerilla production tactics of Godard's Breathless
Sofia Coppola shows the eccentricity and subtlety of Jim Jarmusch, the poet's gift of Krzysztof Kieslowski, and a piercing sense of humor all her own.
The performances are a bit too underplayed to suit me, but the melancholy film is both funny and fascinating.
In Japan, the most extreme delicacy goes hand in hand with garishness, and Coppola offers up both for our delectation. It's a heady, hallucinatory combo.
As in Rushmore...kindness is the underlying trait of Murray's character.
May-December romances have been done to death, but Coppola's tender touch and knack for nuance practically reinvents the genre.
Like the sort of fleeting, quietly intense relationship that it portrays, Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation amounts to a handful of stolen moments -- and a lot more than the sum of them.
The ending packs an emotional wallop, a moment as magical as anything you will see at the movies this year.
Lost in Translation will bring in the new wave of young filmmakers who realise the power of emotion and introspection and the audience thinking for themselves.
Murray has been singing songs to us ever since his old days on Saturday Night Live, but never like this.
'Una cinta tierna, emotiva, estupendamente bien actuada y agradablemente honesta. Uno de los mejores filmes del año, sencillamente inolvidable'
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