Lost in Translation review

[TAFKAn]

SPOILER WARNING: Last paragraph discusses the ending.

Got a chance to actually leave the house while grandma watched the two-year-old. Took my wife to see an excellent film "Lost in Translation".

This movie has already had a good amount of hype, so you've all probably heard what a wonderful, career-best performance Bill Murray gave. To be honest, I didn't find his performance so fantastic. It was good, but he's been good for a while now. It wasn't significantly better than he did in Rushmore and others.

The movie did a wonderful job of conveying the sense of being ill at-ease in a foreign country and really, truly, feeling like a stranger in a strange land. It's very hard to do and this film did it well.

It was genuinely funny as well. I laughed several times.

The general ennui and malaise of the heroes is belabored a little too much if you ask me. A good five minutes of the early part of the film could have been cut. We get it. They are unhappy and listless. Next. The director seems to think we're too stupid or something.

SPOILER
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Lastly, the movie ends with a terrible copout. Instead of a parting final word between the two main characters who have developed a wonderful rapport during the film without having sex (another thing that's hard to do), Murray's character whispers into her ear and we don't hear it.

I understand the point. It doesn't matter what he said. We can surmise what he said. I still say it's a cheap way for the writer to avoid actually having to write a knock-out punch of last line, which is what is expected here.

This review comes off sounding negative but I thoroughly enjoyed the film and it is one of the top films of the year.

[Rushmore]

I didn't read the spoiler, because I intend to see the film.

That said, this film ought to be pretty damned good, seeing as Sophia Coppola owes the world no less than 3 magnificent films to counteract her effect on Godfather III.

I figure she did ok with The Virgin Suicides, there's this, and to get even, something of a caliber, oh, say, along the lines of, well...Harold and Maude would do just fine.

I think of her similarly to how I think of that guy who reached out of the stands last night and certainly did his best to cost the Cubs the game.

But that's cross-threading, and I'll call the foul on myself.

Ok. Game on.

[daryn]

you call that a spoiler??

[andyfox]

I liked the ending. It was the only thing in the script that showed some thought. The rest of the script was almost non-existent. I've been to Tokyo and stayed at the Park Hyatt and the evocation of being in Tokyo, jet-lagged, unable to sleep, feeling strange in a strange place, was great. For about half an hour. Then nothing happpened. And then nothing happened again. The supposed sexual tension between the two protagonists didn't register with me because a) Murray said almost nothing the entire movie, which was a shame because I find him a very funny guy; and b) the female lead was, IMO, terrible, a boring actor.

But the big problem was the lack of a script. OK, I get it, they're both unhappy in their lives and in Tokyo. I don't need to see her looking out the window forty-six times.

But I liked the ending. Who knows what happens? Hard to believe Murray could have given her words of wisdom since he was hardly wise, just older than her. But it was a touch of something thought out carefully, rather than just the meandering of the rest of the movie.

Overall, I thought it was OK. FWIW, both my wife and sister-in-law loved it.

[daryn]

i just now saw this movie, and didn't think it was good. anyone else have comments?

[cornell2005]

the ending is part of what made it great. if it had ended any other way it would have been much more cliche

[Rushmore]

I thought it was yet another situation where some Hollywood darlings are all being fawned all over by the darling-loving media in Hollywood.

I mean, yes, the movie is better than Ernest Goes To Camp (I would assume).

But for crying out loud, it's nothing more than a nice little change of pace. It's a little quirky where it needs to be, endearing in spots, and generally not disagreeable, but there's lots out there that can say the same, and we haven't christened all involved as the future of Hollywood and the salvation of the arts in general.

That said, I DO recommend it. I just do not recommend believing the hype at all, because you, like me, will be disappointed.

[Eihli]

back up a minute. what is wrong with ernest goes to camp? you make it sound like that's a bad movie.

"You drag the blade along the stone untill it... cuts into... the.. flesh.... and.... look! a rabbit!"

<3 4 ernest

[PuppetMaster]

It starts off with an average looking ass in see-through panties, and it goes down hill from there.

The movie is filled with tons of dead air time. Bill Murray takes a shower and gets dressed - thats 4 minutes right there.

Bill Murray once again proves his only good film is Stripes.

Total Garbage

[PuppetMaster]

[ QUOTE ]
I liked the ending. It was the only thing in the script that showed some thought. The rest of the script was almost non-existent. I've been to Tokyo and stayed at the Park Hyatt and the evocation of being in Tokyo, jet-lagged, unable to sleep, feeling strange in a strange place, was great. For about half an hour. Then nothing happpened. And then nothing happened again. The supposed sexual tension between the two protagonists didn't register with me because a) Murray said almost nothing the entire movie, which was a shame because I find him a very funny guy; and b) the female lead was, IMO, terrible, a boring actor.

But the big problem was the lack of a script. OK, I get it, they're both unhappy in their lives and in Tokyo. I don't need to see her looking out the window forty-six times.

But I liked the ending. Who knows what happens? Hard to believe Murray could have given her words of wisdom since he was hardly wise, just older than her. But it was a touch of something thought out carefully, rather than just the meandering of the rest of the movie.

Overall, I thought it was OK. FWIW, both my wife and sister-in-law loved it.

[/ QUOTE ]
Whenever your wife/sister-in-law/mom love a movie, you KNOW it is total garbage.