Rating: 
Summary: A phenomenal, surreal atmosphere, a touching story
Review: I am writing this review mostly in response to those who say it is boring and pointless. Frankly, if a movie-watcher is looking for car crashes, watch Speed. Lost in Translation is a movie that I might describe as "dreamlike realism." It is a quiet film set in a noisy city. Bill Murray plays a '70s action movie star who is Tokyo to film a commercial for whiskey. In the early film, he undergoes an experience not unlike sensory deprivation. He drinks alone in a bar listening to bad karaoke. His commercial director speaks for twenty animated seconds and his translator gives him three words of meaningless direction. He is an ocean away from a family that has forgotten him. He is numb. He is alone. Scarlett Johansson plays the young wife of a hipster photographer who is forced to stay in the hotel during her husband's photo shoots around the country. She listens to self-help tapes in her hotel room. She swims alone in the large hotel pool. The film is about how these two souls that are floating aimlessly and blindly in our ultra-modern world connect in a way we don't usually see on film. Even though they must be at least thirty years apart in age (a fact the director Sofia Coppola uses to accent the improbability of the events), they form a bond that begins perhaps because they understand each other's pain. But how it develops is what makes this movie so special. In a world where all of us probably feel alone in some way despite all the technology that connects us and supposedly makes our lives easier, we can root for these two lost souls to find each other and with that, find happiness. The cinematography and the direction is breathtaking also. The scenes are never rushed, and, along with the ethereal music, this gives the film its dreamlike quality. The scene where Scarlett Johansson's character takes a sightseeing trip by herself was an especially powerful one for me. Overall, I can't say enough good things about this film. It was the best movie I've seen in a long time. Just don't watch it expecting Guy Ritchie to have done the editing and the Wachowski brothers to have choreographed the fight scenes.
Rating: 
Summary: I don't get all the hype
Review: I didn't get it. This movie received all this hype and I was excited to see it. Boy was I disapointed, this movie had no point, no ending, no meaning. The story is old man meets young girl, old man and young girl party, old man leaves. That's it. Nothing happens. Save 2 hours of your life and pass on this movie.
Rating: 
Summary: A great movie about loneliness.
Review: Lost in Translation is not your average movie. It's more of a thinking comedy about people trying to connect in a city that is hard to fit in with. Sofia Coppola does a great job with the majesty of Tokyo but also shows the way people can get lost in it's huge tapestry of culture. Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson are great as the two lonely people trying to connect with themselves and the outside world, and we, the viewer are taking though this journey with them and are intrigued with their misadventures together. It worth the word of mouth that it's getting, and I hope Bill Murray gets the Oscar because he is that good in it.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Murray's Best But Give Him an Oscar
Review: I guess I have to say I hope Bill Murray gets and Oscar for the movie. It is not a bad movie but he deserves an Oscar for his body of work - mostly it has been very creative and humorous and made a lot of people laugh from Caddy Shack to Groundhog Day. Regarding this movie - shooting a film in Japan always has a novelty factor - but Murray is starting to get a bit old (60?) and I think the idea of meeting up with a 24 year old babe in Tokyo should be the end of these types of parts for him. I guess that was a demographics thing to appeal to a wider audience. But lets call it quits here. Lets cut our loses and move on. Jack in Toronto
Rating:
Summary: Lost in Tanslation
Review: Too bad they found it.
Let me start with the good news; we survived the showing. I would have given it a lower rating but one star is as low as they go. Words like "horribly boring, "pointless", and "why bother" would normally spring to mind, but our mind had gone numb with confussion. Why would a geat talent like Bill Murry do a terrile movie like this? Why would anyone spend time seeing a movie like this? People who enjoyed this movie are the sames ones who enjoy watching paint dry. Now for the bad news. This is definitely one of the worst movies ever made. Please speard the word, tell your friend, send out junk email - "Don't let your friends see this complete junk".
Rating:
Summary: One of the best of 2003
Review: Well, as the reviews here show, you'll either like or hate this movie. And if you hate it, you'll hate it with a passion. Which goes to show that there's probably something to this little movie that would drive them to such passion than those who tear it up are willing to admit. That's usually a sign of a movie worth seeking out. This is a very quiet little movie about two individuals who meet up for a few days in Tokyo and how they come to like, understand, and - through no intention of their own - find that they love each other. For those looking for some deeper meaning than that sometimes we can't predict how or why we end up being with those we call our friends, then perhaps this isn't the film for you. For those looking for something out of the ordinary that isn't just the typical "meet-cute" cliche-heavy romance, give it a shot. This and American Splendor are probably the two best films of 2003.
Rating:
Summary: And the Point Is???
Review: Could there ever have been a more pointless film made? Bill Murray must have REALLY been in a mid-life crisis to want to even take on the role of a man going through a mid-life crisis in a movie that really has no plot and is completely and utterly boring and pointless. It leads nowhere. A waste of time. As a woman married to a man 32 years her senior, I had high expectations for a film that involved a younger woman and older man. Boy was I disappointed. The only reason I give it one star is because of the interesting Japanese lifestyle that is showcased since the characters are on trips to Tokyo, Japan. Personally, I'd like to know what all the hype about this movie was about. As my husband bluntly put it during the film, we were "bored on the edge of our seats." One this is for sure, the reviews on this film must have been "Lost in Translation."
Rating:
Summary: Great idea...not so great execution
Review: I thought that the premise was great, two people lonely in a strange land befriend each other. The photography and the soundtrack were used to good effect. Overall I thought the movie was moody and meloncholy...which it should have been. Character development was where I thought the film lacked. I got the feeling that we just touched the surface of these two instead of getting a good understanding of them. I left the theater thinking that there was still more that I wanted to know. It was far batter than your average movie (which does not speak too well for our choices in movies) so I gave it three stars.
Rating:
Summary: Charlotte Is A Mope
Review: I became so bored I could eat my foot. I'm very curious as to what they think about this movie in Japan.
Rating:
Summary: LOST IN TRANSLATION
Review: Lost in Translation I have watched this film both in the theater and dvd and I like this movie better now than I did at the theater, and I liked it at the theater allot.
This film just shows me what can be done, when a smart director takes her time to develop characters which we learn to care about. Lets face it, this film is not about much. Two people stuck in a hotel in the urban sprawl of Tokyo, isolated by language and their lives. Two people who, under normal circumstances would never meet and have little in common. Yet they connect and share a few moments in their lives that they shall take with them the rest of their days.
This film is smart. Very smart because again it is really about very little and yet it kept my attention to the very last second. Bill Murray is wonderful. He never over plays this roll, not for a moment. Just when you think he may take it too fare he reals himself in and stays in character. He is funny at times, but conveys a man very tired with his life and his place in it.
Scarlet Johnasson is great. A star in the making. The chemistry is there between her and Murray even though there must be 30 plus years difference in their ages.
I liked the fact that unlike most Hollywood films they never end up hooking up in bed. That would have been to common and this was not a common film. We feel the characters much more so when they do not get together in any sexual way. It was almost as if the characters were too special to sleep together(for sex) and that helped lift the acting and the film above the common love story churned out these days.
But to me the best and most outstanding moment is the end when Murray chases Johnasson down on the Tokyo street and you realize in that final meeting together how special he thinks she is. I am glad we do not hear what they say to each other. But I can only guess it would be something touching, and sincere just as this film was.
Lost in Translation is a film for those who have felt
lonely in a crowd of people ,and yet found something up lifting to carry them over the emptiness. A wonderful movie.
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