Rating: 
Summary: A very refreshing piece of work
Review: Lost in translation is a very different and refreshing piece of work, when compared with all the other mainstream movies around at the moment. Bill Murray as the middle age crisis star Bob Harris had given up a career building play to star in an ad in which he has no idea what he was supposed to do. Even worse, his stay in the jetlagged Tokyo was lengthened out of business consideration and now he had to face more lonely sleepless nights. Similarly a university graduate wife of a photographer on business trip in Tokyo was having the same problem. She was having the "expatriate wife syndrome" that apart from insomnia, she felt lonely and helpless. She attempted to cure this infinite loneliness by going around the city to look for interesting stuff to do. However, to her surprise, what interested her was another lonely man in the bar of the same hotel. Their encounter sparked off a very interesting relationship and friendship between the pair. They do stuff together, trying new healthy Jap food of which some required them to cook by themselves (a shock for them). The cultural shock was blended into the support that they have for each other in this alien city that they don't want to be in. Lost in Tranlsation deals with the topic of unwillingness, cultural shock and mutual support. Who would foresee a Yale graduate wife of a photographer will develop an interesting friendship with a megastar in his mid-age crisis? The topic was dealt with with delicate care and tenderness mixed with a slim sense of saddness. The director managed to balance all these aspects tactfully. From how she tried to show the audience with how Tokyo life looks like in the 2 hours, we can see that it was well researched as the movie didn't show stereotypical Japanese culture only. The movie gave the Japanese culture a very fair portrayal which is very well done for an American movie. The actors are brilliant. Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson gave an excellent performance for the two characters. Bill as an experienced actor in and alien culture doing things he had been doing all his life, but still had no idea how to do it was just fabulous. Scarlett Johansson as a wife longing for care and love in an alien city was also very well done. Her struggle against loneliness by site seeing and hanging out with this mid-age actor was well crafted. The movie portrayed some of the beautiful sceneries from Tokyo and Kyoto and the cinematography is very well done. It is not a typical mainstream movie type of story that you would expect but it does give you a feeling of difference. The gags are very well done and keep the movie interesting. Nonetheless, there are certain parts of the movie that pace slowed down immensely, this could lose a bit of audience attention. No matter what, Lost in Translation is still a movie of choice if you are looking for a movie with a touch of freshness.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent
Review: This movie is not only the best movie of 2003, it is one of the best movies I've ever seen. It's subtle, it's beautiful, it's sad and depressing, but it's also funny. I don't know what else to say, you just have to see the movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Before Sunrise better
Review: I couldn't wait to see this movie. Somewhere I'd heard it compared favorably to one of my favorite movies..BEFORE SUNRISE. Although I appreciated Murray and Scarlett Johansson, the filming and soundtrack, it was hard to feel empathetic for 2 rich people lost in their own emptiness.
Where was the passion? (Mental if not physical?) It was more interesting as a travel piece featuring urban Japan rather than a romance.
Rating:
Summary: Being pleasantly surprised is a rarity...
Review: ... and that is how I was after watching Sofia Coppola's homage to finding friends and the oddness that is Japan. After laughing at the "lip" scene and many others... I ended up in tears when I least expected it. This is a movie I think everyone should see... not only is it funny, it is very poignant.
Rating:
Summary: lovely visual tone poem
Review: a beautiful, understated film that doesn't try to do too much. Lush cinematography you can almost feel and an amazingly nuanced performance from Bill Murray would be enough reason to see this film, but you get so much more.
American audiences tend to be confused by and hostile toward ambiguity, which is the foundation of this movie. Part of the magic is how well it translates such a nebulous concept into filmic reality.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant, but especially if you have been to Japan!
Review: I had a strange experience when I saw Lost in Translation. I was the only one laughing in the whole theatre. I was dying of laughter while the rest of the theatre was silent. But there is a reason for this. Having been to Japan 4 times I totally knew how the main characters felt. This was a brilliant movie, but the watcher needs to be warned that if you have not been to Japan you might not fully see why the film has gotten all the rave reviews that it has. My favorite scene which has happened to me so many times is when Bill Murray in the in elevator and looks around and notices how different he looks from all the Japanese, how out of place he feels. Anyone who has travelled to Asia has felt this moment. I really loved this movie....Sofia Coppola has almost made up for single handly ruining Godfather 3!
Rating:
Summary: Okay, but overrated
Review: If you're willing to sacrifice all plot and tension in the name of great atmosphere, then this film may be for you. Otherwise, stay away. Bottom line, this film is nowhere near as deserving of a 'best picture' or 'best director' nomination as, say, 'In America' or last year's 'Punch Drunk Love'. Not even close.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing, Xenophobic, Tired
Review: Based on the rave reviews of this movie, I was expecting something better than this tired, unimaginative palp. "Lost" replays some of the same tired jokes of the Anglo or American in a foreign place (towering above the natives in an elevator - har har) where the character knows nothing of the language and expects people to speak to him in perfect English. I found Bill Murray's character irritating and offensive; he shows a dismissive smugness towards a people he really never tries to get to know.
Rating: 
Summary: Overrated and just plain bad
Review: I dont see why so many people liked this movie maybe because they have bad taste. Let me see there was no plot and extremly boring I fell asleep! I cant believe this won awards it was a lousy movie. An it wasnt even funny maybe one or 2 lines at most. This movie should be up there with the worst movies like Gigli.Its 2 people wondering around Tokyo...wow how exciting. Ive been to Tokyo an I sure didnt spend my time wondering around complainin how lonely I am an I didnt have anyone at the time. I think critics are bein nice to this movie because it has Bill Murray in it.
Rating:
Summary: A Charming Lost and Found Experience
Review: As I began to compose this brief commentary, I remembered that Sofia Coppola was cast as the infant being baptized during the final sequence of events in the first Godfather film (1972) which her father directed. She later appeared in Godfather Part III, a last minute and miscast substitute, reputedly for Winona Ryder. How different this film is from those films as well as The Conversation (1974) and Apocalypse Now/Redux (1979) which her father also directed. With regard to Lost in Translation, she wrote the screenplay as well as directed it, evoking brilliant performances from Bill Murray (as Bob Harris) and Scarlett Johansson (as Charlotte). For me, the title suggests multiple dimensions of irony. Some are obviously related to Harris, familiar to those in Tokyo who recognize him but certainly adrift (if not totally lost) in a culture foreign to him in almost every possible way. Other ironies involve communication difficulties unrelated to fluency in language. For example, even after two years of marriage, Charlotte and John (Giovanni Ribisi) are -- to a significant extent -- strangers to each other as are Bob and his wife back in the United States to whom he has been married for quite some time. Moreover, much of the communication between Charlotte and Bob is also lost in translation, more the result (I think) of generational than linguistic differences. All this suggests an important point to me: It is difficult (if not impossible) for others to know who you are if you don't. It is also so important, moreover, to know who you aren't. Presumably Bob has been struggling with these issues, at least since his career began to evaporate. Both Bob and Charlotte are at or near a crossroad in their respective lives when they first meet. After several days together, their relationship arrives at another crossroad. Which way to go? Where is his life headed? And hers? Will they proceed together? Here are two of several reasons why I admire this film so much. First, thanks to Coppola and her superb cast, it has exceptional charm. There are so many targets of opportunity for a cynical statement. However, to her great credit, she ignores them all. Although there are highly amusing (sometimes zany) moments along the way, to be sure, Coppola develops the characters of Bob and Charlotte with respect and affection but never with condescension. The second reason is that this film has great natural energy which Coppola juxtaposes with moments of intimacy, tenderness, reflection, and even poignancy. To achieve that, Coppola and Lance Acord blend as well as balance exterior shots of Tokyo at night (which resembles Las Vegas) with exterior shots of religious shrines during the day, thereby complementing Charlotte and Bob's diverse moods as they explore at least some of the country in which they feel lost. Given what she achieves in this film, I am eager to see how Coppola's career develops in years to come. My hunch (only a hunch) is that her talents are more diverse than those of her father (e.g. slapstick comedy) and thus the nature and extent of opportunities which await her are greater than those available to him after the first Godfather film (1972). He must be a very proud father....and should be. FYI: The special features of the DVD version include a conversation with Coppola and Murray, a behind-the-scenes featurette which includes exclusive footage shot by the filmmakers ("Lost on Location"), several deleted scenes, and an extended version of the Japanese TV show, "Matthew's Best Hit TV."
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