My Reviews Become Lost in Translation

 Before we move to the review, I have to be just one more fangirl to shout out that Leo DiCaprio won Best Actor for The Revenant. I did not see Spotlight, the Best Picture movie, but I can easily assume that it's more in the style of the type of movie the Academy likes to give the Best Picture Award to; I bet it is a great film, but The Revenant is truly the best film I have seen in years. For those of you who are friends with me on Facebook, my first post in months summed up how I felt about it, so I don't have current plans to do a review on it. Just take my word that it's a masterpiece.

In the previous week, I reviewed The Hurt Locker, and that won Best Picture-- the first time a female director has won the award. If you count back a few years to 2003, you get the 3^rd female director to be nominated for Best Picture, Sofia Coppola for tonight's review of Lost in Translation. This movie won best original writing, and landed Bill Murray a well-deserved nomination for Best Actor (and Coppola was nominated for Best Director).

I am going to assume that most regular folks don't have a clue what Lost in Translation is or what the heck the plot is. And that's okay. It's easily the most complex film I will try to describe, but not for plot in any way, strangely enough. As a matter of fact, you really can't pin a genre to this movie. At the time of filming, Bill Murray was around 50 and Scarlett Johansson 17, so I wouldn't blame anybody for feeling an uneasy vibe if this movie was described as romantic. And don't worry, I won't call it romantic. Romance would bring all these cliches to mind about boy meets girl, falls for her, makes mistake, then at the end get back together. That is the formula for a Rom-Com. And this movie doesn't fit any formula, and I love it for that. And as to the Com part of that, there is certainly comedy (especially with how Bill Murray interacts with the Japanese, and there's a particularly humorous, improvised scene where Murray does a photoshoot for a whiskey commercial), but the quick pace and care-free attitude of a comedy doesn't fill the mold of this film either. So, what is this film I am describing?

Well, if you want the basis of the plot, Bill Murray is a fading actor named Bob Harris shooting a commercial in Tokyo away from his wife and family. Staying at the same hotel is Scarlett Johansson's Charlotte-- the wife of a photographer doing a shoot in Tokyo. Pretty basic, right? Well to erase the idea of this film being basic, I used statistical analysis (the internet) to deduce that Bob and Charlotte don't say a word to each other until we're past the 30 minute mark. Now this may detract somebody from wanting to see the film, and I do understand that, for it is such a different film that doesn't do anything simply to appeal to the masses; but what I have not done is do this film justice. Yet.

This movie doesn't try compelling an audience through an intricate plot. Rather, it is a film set upon the atmosphere. There is subtlety in every action. A shift of Charlotte's head to look out the window on a moving train showcases stark beauty of Japan that drives the emotions of the film rather than dialogue. Lots of the film contrasts the nighttime setting with the glamorous lights of skyscrapers. There is life and vibrancy happening on this island, but this itself contrasts with the subtlety and vulnerability of the two leads. And Sofia Coppola even said that she probably wouldn't have made the film if Bill Murray didn't take the part, and everybody should be thankful for that since the movie is largely in his hands.

If I were to describe a romance movie, I would most likely allure to the “chemistry” between the leads-- the believability and sincerity that these two could fall for each other. So in that sense, chemistry doesn't work at all for Bill and Scarlett. This is not a film about them falling in love. In case this point is not clear enough, I will hold a moment of silence represented by an ellipses to signify how dear this is to the entirety of the film … What Bob Harris and Charlotte hold is a bond. And it is a bond like no other depicted in any film I know of. I laud Boyhood and The Tree of Life for the best and most realistic depictions of boyhood onscreen. This film does the same with the realism of the friendship and connection made between the stars. The Oscar nominated performance from Murray and Golden Globe nomination for Johansson are perfectly realized by Sofia Coppola's direction-- direction that I do not think would be anything near the same from a man.

There is no clear way to describe what this film is like, for the grace and dignity are almost purely from a visual standpoint. This is not the film you take a group of friends to watch and expect a huge reaction; instead, there is a sophistication that rewards the viewer that desires thoughtfulness in a relaxed sense. Perhaps just as I asked for trust that The Revenant is a masterpiece, in a similar way do I ask for trust that Lost in Translation is a unique film that I believe everyone should indeed watch. And I hope I can continue this trust with fair reviews for all the weeks to come. And on that note, I do not have a particular agenda set for next week, but my thoughts were to blend a classic from the Middle Ages and a contemporary film. With that said, the point of this blog is to be useful to anybody and everybody, so please tell me of any particular movie that I should review, and I will be more than happy to oblige. Remember to tip your waitresses, and until next time, sayonara!