Finally got around to watching Lost in Translation this afternoon. and as predicted, I thought it was great.
Murray was hilarious, and overall the movie was sweet and tender and innocent and rather refreshing. No wonder no one in Hollywood like Sofia Coppola. There were no explosions, no T&A, and no graphic violence.
I have hear people claim they did not find the movie amusing or that it was boring or too long. If you thought it was boring or too long, and you did not understand the metaphor of the movie, then just understand one thing- Sofia Coppola just sneered at you for the last 90 minutes.
Jon Henke
Help a brother out – can you explain this metaphor? I was bored silly.
Possibly, because I was expecting something funny. After all….Bill Murray? In Japan? It seemed hilarity would ensue…
Or, possibly, because I just didn’t care at all about a pathetic, depressed, narcissistic movie star and a bored young “housewife”.
Still, if there was a metaphor, I missed it. Care to explain?
John Cole
The metaphor (or artistic device- not a film major, so I don’t know what it is supposed to be called) is that Sofia used two Americans in Tokyo to demonstrate that the linguistic barrier between them and the Japanese was very much the same thing as the emotional barrier that the two leads felt for their supposed loved ones.
Both are in essentially loveless or jaded relationships- hers, while only two years old, is a shell of emptiness. She does not understand her husband, he has open contempt for her, flirting with that bimbo in thwe bar right in front of her, and remaining completely unaware how confused and lonely she is. their is no inclusiveness in their relationship, as he is always running off somewhere, and he thinks of her only in passing and only long enough to utter a meaningless “I love you.”
Murray’s character is deeply unsatisfied with his marriage, and is going through a mid-life crisis. The only attempts at coommunicate between the two devolve into meaningless decisions about a burgundy rug. He is confused and reaching out to her, she is turning ever more inward, focussing on the superficial aspects of their life, and unaware of what her husband is going through- actually, she is overtly disinterested. At one point, she states, “Should I be worrying about you, Bob?”
Both characters are also deeply spiritual yet wholly unfulfilled. Remember how both have the cd about the soul? Remember her initial visit to a temple that leaves her so distraught, because she is reaching out looking for meaning and finds nothing but chanting monks? She even references it ina phone call saying that she feels empty.
Tie all this in to the crass commercialism and the cultural divergence they witness from the Japanese society as a whole. The discordant sounds every time they are on the street is one big clue, another shining example of the cultural anomie that they are wiutnessing is when she walks through the arcade, and sees all of these peop0le busily playing ‘interactive’ games. In other words, machinesset up to handle their loneliness and isolation from others- dancing alone, singing alone, playing guitar alone, etc.
Another clue is the blonde bimbo actress- at the screening for the movie (Maximum Velocity- another slap at Hollywood), they ask the actress what it is like working with Keanu and she replies with mindless drivel- “We both like puppies and mexican food, etc.” not one shred of a response that would show that she is capable of existing beyond a superficial plane, not one clue that she was able to learn what Keanu as a person was really like, and what it meant for her. INstead she focussed on silly things like whatkind of food they have in common.
Another thing that was pretty cool was howmuch of the music was either out of key or slightly out of key- in the bar, the loungesingers, etc. And when the characters are alone, italways sems weird, inappropriate, and out of place. However, when thegroup is with the surfer, and the other tokyo residents who also feel alienated and isolated, and they are signing Karaoke, the music is similarly out of key, but somehow does not feel inappropriate. Then cut back, a few miutes later, and the blonde bimbo issinging in the lounge (Nobody Does it Better), and onceagain, the same offf-key singing seems transparent, fake, and well, wrong.
That was the recurring theme, and why the relationship between Charlotte and Bob was so sweet and innocent and fulfilling for them and theviewers. Theyhad something that most people never will, or that most people will never recognize. There wasno sex, because thatwasnot whatthey needed from 3each other. The best example of this is that the only time we saw the two sleep were when they were with eachother. Bob sleeping in the cabwhileCharlotte watched,shortly thereafter, Charlott soundasleep as Bob carriesher to her hotel room. Remember all the other scenese where she could not sleep with her husband? That was more of the symbolism.
At any rate, I thought it was a great movie, and very worthy of an Oscar.
Skip Perry
I’m just so happy that Kevin Shields is making music again. The stuff he wrote for the movie wasn’t on the level of Loveless, but then again not much is.
Jon Henke
Interesting. I get the depth, now that you explain it.
I can’t honestly say I find the movie any more interesting, but I see what “artistic” expression Coppola was trying to get across.
I’m afraid I just miss “deep” movies for the same reason I miss music. I just don’t care that much about “art”, so nuanced “art” means just as little to me as the stuff I hear from Britney Spears. ie: I’m just not interested in their “art”.
Jon Henke
And hey…thanks for the explanation.
Russell
Meh.
A well-made, sweet movie, but not particularly profound. I think most of the humor was garnered somewhat cheaply by the repeated “look how funny the Japanese are” device.
Watcher
John… I get what you are saying, but can you explain how the two main characters changed in any discernable way throughout the entire film? I’m all for metaphors and whatnot, but I need more than that.
HH
Well, it’s not “kid friendly” per se, what with the strip club scenes and all but it’s a good flick for adults.
IB Bill
I get what you’re saying, John. Thanks, too. Quite eloquently put.
What I saw was similar … but my disappointment with the movie was this: It didn’t go anywhere beyond that central metaphor. They were just trapped. That’s Sofia Coppola’s decision, of course. That’s fine but it was depressing.
Anne
There’s not a lot of plot or story development, but this film offers a chance to see two really great actors play off each other.
jp
“…Sofia used two Americans in Tokyo to demonstrate that the linguistic barrier between them and the Japanese was very much the same thing as the emotional barrier….”
I got that, but I thought that this could’ve been done without having Murray constantly make fun of Japanese people. I mean, i can only take so much “me so solly” jokes before I get bored.
Would I go so far as to say it was offensive? Nah, it was just mindless and obvious, but I could see how someone would find it offensive. It reminded me of nothing so much as the nadir of Robin Williams movies, when the director would just let him ‘cut loose.’ Ick.
ray
The movie was pointless and plotless. This was nothing more than Daddy buying his daughter a movie.
But, wow! it must be deep, right?—its incomprehensibleness just proves that.
OF Jay
I “got the movie,” despite my assaults on it on my blog, but I am left wondering whether that painfully slow, “boring” sensation — that comparable to waiting for a pot of water to boil — was itself a device used by Sofia to present the plot of the film itself.
Dodd
I think Jay is on to something. In order to get the audience to truly feel the “stuckedness” of the two leads, the movie must perforce move at a rather languid pace. I can’t say as I object to that. I appreciate a film that can pull me in and make me feel what the characters are feeling, so I rate this one well above most of the other ones I’ve seen of late.
But IB Bill has a point, too. It’s all well and good to explore this kind of alienation, meditate on it even, but showing us a way out – or at least doing more than letting us decide for ourselves at the end what he said to her and whether or not he found the way out – would raise this flick’s level by an order of magnitude.