Lost In Translation

        I did not know who the director of the movie was when I saw this movie for the first time. I started liking (maybe loving) the film as soon as the film opened with a simple frame and divine composition. As the film proceeded, it kept me involved and made me like it more. Then later, I read the name, Sophia Coppola, and leaned back into my chair and thought – perfect! It is in the genes and she is indeed a genius.

Lost in Translation is a story of two American people of different age and different lives facing the ‘do not know what our future is’ crisis in the backdrop of the Japanese city – Tokyo. Played by Bill Murray (Bob Harris) and Scarlett Johansson (Charlotte) who are the protagonists where Bob is a fading American actor whose marriage life is also on the verge of ending and Charlotte is a newly married wife of a photographer John (Giovanni Ribisi) who has brought her here with him as he has his photography assignment in Tokyo. Later it is revealed that he is giving more attention to a model Kelly (Anna Faris), making Charlotte face the conflict within herself of whom has she married.

Bill was the first choice of the director and she kept persisting him to play the role for almost a year. And Bill Murray as the hero of acting he is has played it efficiently and as it must have been expected by the director. Scarlett Johansson was only 17 when she accepted this role and though her real age doesn’t match the one in the film, says it that all in all she has done a mature job in the film. Both of them won the BAFTA awards for their role in this film.

The swing of the film begins when Charlotte sends a drink to Bob in the restaurant as she empathises with him and connects with his loneliness. This begins a friendship between them which later turns into the dilemma of two, whether it is just the company of the known each other they are enjoying in the unknown city or it is the serious love, making it worth an affair. None of this is literally uttered in the film anywhere so ever, nevertheless, the feeling one can get with the beautiful cinematic expression conceived by Lance Acord (Cinematographer) and Sophia Coppola (Director) is closely similar.

Being the daughter of legendary film-maker, Francis Ford Coppola, Sophia has lived up to the expectations. The pace of the movie is just what it should be like. The Aesthetics followed by the team and the makers is authentic and gripping.

There cannot be suitable title other than, Lost in Translation, for the film. Though this one is a comedy film, many other emotions subtly emoted in the screenplay might have been lost in the decoding by the viewers while watching it. However, film gets the 100 percent marks for filming it right.

A city is a big phenomenon to be shown in 90 minutes. Especially with the convincing lives of two major characters who must be kept in attention all the time. A city has many aspects, historical, economical, cultural and social and every aspect has too many sub-aspects and covering them all in a small duration is next to impossible, however, Coppola has managed to frame all the important and needful ones in the film very soberly and without hurting the Japanese sentiments. The makers have taken a good time to establish the characters and the city.

Comedy here is situational. The lives of the two characters are lost in the cultural shock of the foreign country. Two singular paths of culture crossing each other as bluntly as they possibly do and what we get to see is, Lost in Translation. The way by which Bob and Charlotte’s relationship develops is the reason why you keep smiling and feeling good about the characters after a long cinematic time. The dilemma that follows this is what you see it coming. And all you feel is, both the sides are right and wait for what the makers have thought to end it.

Keeping a small duration, you do not have to wait for long and the end touches you gently and pushes you back into your lives. The superb end written felt to me like, a fellow commuter who became friend in the journey, pulled me closer to her as we were reaching our destination, pressed her to me and pushed me back to say goodbye verbally. No questions asked and no answers needed.

The best part of the movie was the initial scene of the sets of shooting where the director speaks long and expressive lines to Bob, directing him for the shot and the interpreter translates it to only a few words. Bob asks if the director only meant that much, but ultimately not realizing that many and many things get lost in translation, the film continues.