Lost in Translation

Posted by: John C on 23 January 2004

Seems the perfect movie for the menopausal male. I felt the cinematography was wonderful and was taken by the beauty of Tokyo. The lame jokes at expense of Japanese speech/culture/lifestyle franky dimwitted, banal and insulting. Bill Murray was as ever eminently watchable and puts in a lovely understated performance full of empathy. Scarlett Johannsen almost won me over but in the end failed.I mean I want my Yale philosophy graduates to talk a lot. Basically I've seen too many Eric Rohmer movies to think this was anything out of the ordinary.Nice, I think describes it.

John

Posted on: 25 January 2004 by glenda

Hi John - thanks for the review which confirmed my suspicions about the film but I'll be going along anyway as I love Bill Murray . Almost saw it last week but opted for "Touching the Void" at the last minute but I did secure the L in T soundtrack on vinyl which is fab - Air , Happy End , etc so well worth checking out .
Cheers
Glenda

Posted on: 25 January 2004 by John C

Alex you are right it has a great soundtrack (oddly British circa 1980 feel).

John

Posted on: 25 January 2004 by Minky

I really enjoyed it. I've spent a bit of time in Asia and I think that most of the Japanese jokes were spot on. I found Charlotte’s reticence frustrating but I think that it was important for the feel of the movie and if you also look at SJ’s performance in "Ghost World" it could be that "sleepy" is her thing. She IS gorgeous though.

Bill Murray is superb.

Don't want to give too much away for those that haven't seen it yet, but given the comment "I guess she was more your age" at lunch and the act that prompted it I can't understand why you-know-what didn't happen and from the last scene I not sure that they did either.

Posted on: 26 January 2004 by Phil Sparks

I saw it too last week and concur with most of the above comments. Thought it looked and sounded fab, the acting was great but overall it was just a bit slow. Don't get me wrong I'm all for some nice French cinema long lingering shots, but it just didn't do enough for me.

What I do find hard to understand is why it's up for NINE oscars this year - yes it's good but is it really that good. Maybe it's just that it's so un-Hollywood

Phil

Posted on: 26 January 2004 by Berlin Fritz

IR's communication Dept Innit:

Fritz Von Comeagainjohn