Rating: 
Summary: Found a Treasure in "Lost in Translation"
Review: Sofia Coppola claims that she was watching Antonioni before making Lost in Translation, and more than the brief clip of La Dolca Vita shown during the film confirms the influence. Coppola's deft touch at creating the atmosphere of two characters adrift in the night, in an urban scene (Tokyo), and within their lives makes the tempo (like that of much of Antonioni) deliberately uneven and evocatively so. Sometimes our two protagonists are caught in a frenetic rush of night life, while at other moments, they are caught within their hotel room cocoons. Lost in Translation begins with the comic premise of the difficulty of living, even briefly, in a literally foreign world where a different language is spoken and approximations of your own language are almost incomprehensible. Lest this concept be mistaken for cultural cliché and Japan-bashing, the filmmaker quickly makes it clear that Bob Harris (Bill Murray) and Charlotte feel "Lost in Translation" even within their own day to day lives, as connections with their spouses become strained and words no longer seem to connect them in a profound way to other people. Fledgling attempts at communication, on the phone or in person, are thwarted. But then Bob, a movie star featured in a Japanese ad campaign for Suntori Whiskey, and Charlotte, the wife of a fashion photographer, meet at a hotel in Tokyo where they are both feeling sleep-deprived and alienated, and they discover that they speak the same language. The exuberance of their patter is what keeps lightness in a movie that might otherwise strain underneath the weight of (literal) dark as both characters struggle with insomnia. Coppola's work as a screenwriter is impeccable here, and I hope this spring will see an Academy Award for Lost in Translation's original screenplay. The chemistry between the two leads is incredible, and, while all reviewers have said this, I will only repeat, this is the role of Bill Murray's career, and his alternating humor, vulnerability, pathos, and playfulness create a tour de force performance. Murray and Johansson seem utterly in tune to one another throughout the movie, and her performance carries a sincerity and loveliness that underscores even her most ironic or flippant lines with emotional depth.
Rating: 
Summary: RACIST!!!!!!!!
Review: WHAT A HORRIBLE RACIST MOVIE....
Only Japanese women you saw in the movie were either prostitute or silly interpreter who can't speak English. Besides the story and everything, this movie has a fundamental fault! DON'T WATCH IT AND MAKE FUN OF JAPANESE CULTURE.
Rating: 
Summary: Misdescribed Japan
Review: As a native Japanese, I would say this movie misdescribed Japan.They way it described Japanese culture was very inappropriate and I felt it was rather racist. We do have a very eccentric pop culture in Japan, but that is not all we have. Japan is not only sushi, samurai and stupid TV shows. The movie put too much forcus on describing the silly part of Japan and not on the other part. I guess that's because it is based on Bob's view of Japan only, but how many people who saw the movie would actually realize it?
The message I got from the movie was that there is no understanding between American and Japanese culture. The American people in the movie did not even mix with any Japanese, and all they thought was that Japanese can't speak English, which is pretty natural, and they made fun of it.
It made me really sad.
Rating:
Summary: The complexities of silence
Review: Rarely, if ever, has there been a film that carries the full weight of unspoken feelings so lightly and so deftly. Murry and Johansson are like virtuoso jazz musicians playing off of each other with perfect timing and understanding. But that's only half the story; Sofia Coppola's script and directing are flawless. This film about two people whose judgements we admire and who are almost desperate to be out of untranslated Japan make us feel that being in Japan is essential to one's world view. Take me there with Sofia Coppola to show me around.
Rating:
Summary: excellent atmosphere, intimate and funny.
Review: This is an excellent film, if you can apprecaite subtleties and nuances and are tired of most formulaic, mainstream Hollywood films.Two American strangers meet in a Hotel in Tokyo and strike up an intimate, loving friendship. Peppered througout the film are scences of the Bill Murray character worked on film shoots or in studios. In one over the top scene, he is feted by an absolutely manic Japanese talk show host, who is supposed to be the Japanese verison of Johnny Carson. Scarlet Johansen and Bill Murray have smoldering chemistry, without any cheap scenes between them. She's got an edge to her style and thus distinguishes herself from many of today's young actors/ actresses. This is not an overt comedy or a tense drama but it will to a more sophisticated audience than most of what is playing today.
Rating: 
Summary: Sleepless in Tokyo
Review: As a former Road Warrior, I could relate to being isolated in a foreign city far from home. Of course, I was never, as LOST IN TRANSLATION has it, beached in so culturally unfamiliar a place as Tokyo. Does Cleveland count? Bill Murray plays Bob Harris, an American movie star just arrived in Japan's capital to do promos for Suntory whiskey. His lack of enthusiasm for the gig is obvious and, worse, he's disoriented by the difference in language, customs and working conditions. So, he spends his free time either in the hotel bar, or battling insomnia on his hotel bed while brooding on his marriage doldrums. The extent of his wife's need for his presence back home is indicated only by the carpet samples she fedexes for him to choose from. At one point in a call to the States, Bob wishes that they eat Japanese food more often, and his wife matter-of-factly suggests that he just stay there and have it every day. Down the hall is Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson), a young wife accompanying her pro photographer husband, John (Giovanni Ribisi), on a business trip. Hubby is so involved with the job that his wife feels like excess baggage. Charlotte wanders the city unmoved by the experience of discovery, and spends sleepless nights staring out the window at Tokyo's glitter. Though Bob and Charlotte could pass on the sidewalk in any American city and not even notice, in this vacuum created by loneliness and the Hollywood scriptwriters, the two discover each other despite a 30-year difference in age. Murray's understated performance is a gem, and may garner him an Oscar nomination. Bob's potentially a funny guy, but his innate sense of humor is being suffocated by boredom, weariness, and the irritation of being in some incomprehensible place where he'd rather not be. For her part, Charlotte drifts along like a zombie. It's only in the company of each other that the two come out of their respective funks. As much as I applaud Murray's performance, perhaps the best of his career, and admire LOST IN TRANSLATION as an intelligent and perceptive production, I found it less successful as an entertainment vehicle. (After all, that's why I spend money to go to the moving picture show.) While I did occasionally cackle appreciatively, most strongly during the sequence when Bob is beset by a misguided hooker, the film was so glacially paced that it got me fidgeting. I kept waiting for something - anything - to happen. Not an FX-laden kung fu or car chase action sequence, of course, but perhaps some outburst of passion or raw emotion. The plot contained no conflict. It was like watching the poor devils in a slow post office queue strike up polite conversations with fellow sufferers fore and aft to alleviate the tedium. Perhaps it's just because I didn't sympathize with Bob's predicament. His seemed like a lost opportunity to catch up on his reading. Send me to Tokyo, please!
Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece
Review: Some reviewers complain that the dialogue does not bring out the characters. They are correct. It is all said in looks, glances, and body language much like real life. What is not said is what, besides the stunning cinematography and tremendous acting, makes this move a modern day masterpiece. Scarlett Johansson wins over your heart. Bill Murray stays in character and his acting is fabulous. He is funny and touching. Sofia Coppola's directing is dead on. She seems to know her characters inside out. The isolation of travelers in a foreign environment is well depicted. The final scene where Bill Murray whispers something that the audience can no hear says it all. We don't need to hear it. It is just between the two of them. Wonderful, touching, and funny.
Rating:
Summary: A Fairy Tale for Grownups
Review: Marvelous. A fairy tale for grownups. A little slow and a little underdramatized, but it works because the actors stay within their characters.
Rating:
Summary: Great movie
Review: From the reviews I've been reading, people either loved this movie, or hated it. And understandably, for good reason. It's a movie based on character forming as opposed to action. There really isn't a rising action or a real apex where we're supposed to realize the outcome of the relationship. It moves slowly and like I said, relies more on the formation of the relationship between Bob (Murray) and Charlotte (Johannson). That being said... I loved this movie. If you've ever been to Japan, or any other foreign country where you are lost in the language, it will make it much easier to relate to some of the issues that the characters face. I've read where some reviewers state that it was racist? I could not disagree more. If there any subtleties of racism, they serve to display the difference in culture, not to mock the Japanese. It's a fast moving society. They really are like that. They really do yell a lot and talk real fast. They really do mix up the R's and L's. It's not prejudice, it's a fact. Bob and Charlotte are Americans in a foreign country. Of course they will recognize and discuss these things. I think a lot of the people who are putting down this movie are maybe used to fast moving action movies where there is an explosion or someone being killed every five minutes. If you come to this film looking for that, you will definetly be dissapointed. I agree with the reviewer that the scene where they're chased out of the nightclub was either unecessary or not well explained. Yea, Japanese people are eccentric, but I don't see them being eccentric enough to chase someone down the street with a toy gun. We see them have a slight altercation beforehand, but then it jumps to that corny chase scene. I just didn't get it. If you had issues with the boom mic, there's a good reason. The film was shot in a different aspect ratio than other films use. Chances are, the projectionist did not properly adjust for this and you saw much more of the screen than what you were supposed to, hence seeing the boom mic. Tell the manager, you may get some free popcorn out of it. Bill Murray kills in this movie. He hits every scene perfectly and presents the character of Bob Harris exactly as I imagine Coppola wanting it to be conveyed. There are a couple (seemingly out of place) scenes where Bob is hitting a golf ball. Maybe this is an homage to Caddyshack? Scarlett Johannson is perfect too. I can't imagine these characters being played by anyone else. I will be really dissapointed if Murray isn't at least nominated for an Oscar for this film.
Rating:
Summary: A stagnant character study.
Review: There are some movies that, for little apparent reason, get rave reviews from the critics. Moviegoers rush to the theater, eager to see what all the fuss is about. "Lost in Translation," directed and written by Sofia Coppola, is one of these movies. Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson play two lonely souls visiting Japan. Murray is Bob Harris, a has-been actor who is shooting a whiskey commercial for big bucks. Johansson is Charlotte, a beautiful Yale grad who is newly married to a dim-witted photographer. She has no direction in her life, and she is beginning to realize that her marriage may have been a mistake. Since Bob and Charlotte are staying in the same hotel, and both are feeling alienated and lost, they gravitate towards one another and strike up a friendship. A major problem with "Lost in Translation" is a script that fails to help us understand very much about either character. Bob is bored with his marriage and career. Charlotte, who majored in philosophy, is obviously very intelligent, but she married a man who is her intellectual inferior, and she has no profession of her own. However, we never find out why Bob is so dissatisfied with his life. Nor do we find out why Charlotte, who appears to be a thoughtful and sensitive young woman, married a shallow ignoramus and failed to pursue a career of her own. The friendship between Bob and Charlotte is sweet, but their heart-to-heart conversations are not particularly deep or enlightening. Kudos, however, go to the gorgeous cinematography, which includes amazing shots of Tokyo night life, a panorama of the city's skyline, and a lovely and tranquil scene of Buddhists worshipping in a temple. There are also some very funny moments generated by Bill Murray, especially one in which he shoots a whisky commercial while imitating famous personalities. More of this humor would have been welcome. Johansson has an ethereal beauty and sweetness that shine through, but her character is so undeveloped that she remains a cipher until the end of the movie. In short, "Lost in Translation" looks good, and has a few funny and touching moments, but it lacks the spark and depth that makes a movie truly memorable.
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