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 Lost in Translation
by brooksie
Lost in Translation
Metacritic.com: 93
My Score: 08/10
Movie or Film: Film
Lost in Translation is an above average film, but I wouldn't say that it's good for everyone. Sophia Coppola has no clue how to pace a movie. That's the main weakness of Lost in Translation it moves really slowly. No, I mean really, really slowly.
It seems like the movie goes on for about an hour before the two main characters even meet each other. Scarlett Johansson is cute, and does a good job playing up. She's 19, playing 24. I think it was a lot more impressive in Matchstick Men where the other girl is 25 playing 14.
Bill Murray is quite deservingly the main reason that every critic on the face of the earth has ranted and raved about this movie. It certainly isn't the script, which is okay, but not great. And it most definitely wasn't the pacing.
Don't get me wrong, I really, really enjoyed Lost in Translation. I just wish the pace was a little more even. If the movie had to be as long as it was, it needed to have more scenes with Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson together, reacting to weird aspects of Japanese culture.
I saw it with Ryan and Sayaka and Victor, at least two of whom are fluent in Japanese, and while they did benefit from understanding some of the Japanese, I'm not convinced that it necessarily made it a better movie to understand Japanese.
I really enjoyed the movie. I just feel that the total body of American movie reviewers did the movie a disservice by raving about how great the movie is.
Bill Murray will probably be nominated for Best Actor, and I agree that he deserves the nomination. So far, he turned in one of the best performances this year. I'm not sure if he'll win, but I wouldn't be disappointed (ahem, Russell Crowe) if he does.
Go see Lost in Translation. Just don't do it expecting it to be the greatest movie you've ever seen. It's a little bit of a let-down if you listened to critics, and it leaves you feeling pretty depressed at the end. Maybe it's a good kind of depressed, but I haven't gotten to that place yet. We'll see a little later.
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