A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: Lost in Translation

Date Viewed: 2/7/04

Details:

Bill Murray

Scarlett Johansson

Director: Sofia Coppola

Score: 1/2

The Review: Slow, but not boring; curious, but not profound.

Combine ennui with a midlife crisis, and stir in a lot of Oriental jet lag -- that confusing disjoint exhaustion that's a combination of jet lag and trans-global time-zone disparity. If nothing else, the movie and Murray's performance captures this off-axis disorientation incredibly accurately. But whether this particular feature makes it a great film, is subject to debate.

Bob Harris (Murray) is in Tokyo to film a series of Suntory whisky commercials, with Japanese crew and director. His mood is shared by the semi-abandoned wife (Johansson) of a photographer also visiting Japan, and the two spontaneously pick up an unusual (and surprisingly platonic) relationship. Well seasoned with humorous situations, mostly culture clash, including some "fall off your chair" scenes that contribute to the movie's title.

Good directorial debut for another Coppola family member.

By the way, staying in the upper floors of this ritzy hotel gives the impression of a room on top of the Seattle Space Needle -- so high as to be flying. Pretty impressive.

(May-04)

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