Heres one to look for..
TOKYO MIRACLE
Sofia Coppola Breaks Your Heart
by Bradley Steinbacher
Lost in Translation is a tiny movie, as light as helium and draped
upon the thinnest of plots. There is very little conflict, and even
fewer twists and turns. It is as close to a miracle as you're likely to
get this year.
The film opens en route to Tokyo. Inside a limousine sits Bob Harris
(Bill Murray), an actor on the downslope of his career. Exhausted
and disheveled, Bob gazes absently out the window, watching as
Tokyo's strange neon decadence blurs past. His expression is cold
and cynical, and as he passes a massive billboard tattooed with his
own brooding mug, his cynicism only swells; he is a man who
obviously hates himself in the mirror, let alone towering over an
intersection.
Bob has been lured to Japan for the tidy sum of $2 million. His
sponsor: Suntory pure malt whiskey (43% alc./vol.), which is grossly
overpaying him for a brief appearance in a commercial. His trip is
scheduled to last a week, and Suntory has placed him in the Park
Hyatt, one of the city's swankiest hotels. Gigantic and gorgeous, the
Park Hyatt is a bit of an aberration in Tokyo, offering ample space
and comfort in one of the most cramped and crowded cities in the
world. Such extravagance is intended as a testimony to the hotel's
poshness, but to Bob it produces an unintended feeling of isolation;
in a city where 13 million people--most of whom do not speak
sturdy English--occupy 844 square miles, Bob finds himself
confused and painfully lonely.
It is a loneliness shared by Charlotte, a young, smart woman in
Tokyo with her photographer husband. That Charlotte is played by
Scarlett Johansson means that the audience is sure to fall in love
with her; stunning to look at, yet unconventional in her looks,
Johansson--best known, perhaps, as Rebecca in Ghost World--is the
perfect choice for the role, for every time her eyes slump in sadness
your heart plummets. And Charlotte, as it turns out, has much to be
sad about, for her husband (Giovanni Ribisi) barely gives her any
notice, merely peppering her with "I love you"s on his way out the
door to his assignments--"I love you"s that loudly ring hollow in
their large hotel room.
And so it is that Bob and Charlotte eventually find one another out
of mutual isolation. And so it also is that while watching Lost in
Translation one naturally becomes wary that Sofia Coppola, who
also wrote the picture, has unwisely decided to explore a
May/December romance. But Coppola smartly has other interests in
mind, as Bob and Charlotte flirt, to be sure, but their flirting is built
upon an easy camaraderie rather than repressed sexual needs.
Suffering from insomnia, saddled with very little to do in a strange
city, the two bond like soldiers facing similarly uncomfortable
circumstances, and the easy conversation that bounces back and
forth between the two helps to inoculate them from both their
confusing surroundings and their confusing lives. When together,
their failing marriages and general lack of solid direction in life are
hidden from view, and all that's left is their natural
personalities--personalities that fit snuggly together.
In less delicate hands, Lost in Translation could easily have been a
dull, pretentious disaster, but Coppola (whose Virgin Suicides was
a well-made but oddly distant first effort) has two cards tucked up
her sleeves. One is the city of Tokyo itself, which has never looked
so mysterious and engaging in an American film, and the other is
Bill Murray, the bulk of whose part comes across as having been
improvised. Why someone has not thought of dropping Murray
among the citizens of a strange foreign city before remains a
mystery, but without him--and despite the fine work of Coppola and
Johansson--Lost in Translation would surely fail. At first glance,
the casting of Murray, who has never been known for a handsome
face, may seem an odd one for the part of a hugely famous actor
prostituting himself in Japan (and nearly bedding a beautiful young
woman in the process), but while watching Lost in Translation
you quickly realize that only he could make it work. The way in
which he carries himself in the picture, near always cracking wise,
but quite obviously wounded beneath his rumpled frame, is both
wonderful and depressing to witness, and it is a performance hard to
imagine any other actor being able to muster. It is the performance
of Murray's career, and it may, in fact, be the performance of the
year.
Simple, sad, and beautiful, Lost in Translation is one of those rare
films that affects you not just as you're watching it, but long after
you've left the theater as well. It is an exceptionally romantic film
without any real romantic gestures, and this, in the end, may be
Coppola's best trick; neatly sidestepping our expectations, she winds
up making us long for that which we had previously dreaded. At
first we scoff at the thought of Bob and Charlotte becoming
entangled, but by the end of the film it is all we wish to see. We
want a love story, but Coppola gives us a beautiful heartbreak
instead. |
