We're Just Two Lost Souls Swimming In Japan
Even as I am writing this, I am very unclear what my feelings are of this movie which was made a VERY big deal when it came out and was nominated 80 zillion Oscar's. It was a breakthrough for writer/director Sophia Coppola and it was the first somewhat serious role for Bill Murray.
Bill Murray stars as Bob Harris, an American actor who spends a week (or so) in Japan shooting commericals and posing for pictures for a brand of whiskey called Suntory Time. I'm unsure if the word Time is in that sentence cause the only context I've heard this in was it's slogan: Anytime is the right time for Suntory Time. Or something like that. Anyway, this is kinda aggrivating for Bob cause he rather be doing something else.
Scarlett Johansson stars has Charlotte, who is married to John, played by Giovanni Rabisi. John is a photographer who's in Japan taking pictures of some rock band. Charlotte, meanwhile, is just bored in her room.
Bob goes to the set to shoot the commerical where a Japanese director is yelling at him in Japanese while this lady translates it, but she only tells him part of what the director says. This is probably the only really funny part of this movie and it must be seen to get the humor. Then, the next day, Bob goes to a photoshoot for the Whiskey where the photographer makes Bob act like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Roger Moore (Not Sean Connery), and other people who were known to wear tuxedos and isn't Bill Murray.
Bob and Charlotte meet one night in the hotel bar and they become friends. Charlotte invites Bob to come with her to some friend's house, get drunk, and sing karaoke. And because this is an art film, the songs everyone sings has some deep meaning to it.
Then from this point on, Bob and Charlotte just do stuff together. Bob notices that Charlotte's toe doesn't look too good, so he take her to the hospital to get it looked at. She, the day before, stubbed it rather badly and it was sprained or fractured or something, so the doctor, in Japanese, explains this and, in Japanese, puts a bandage on it.
Bob is constantly harrassed by his wife at home in L.A Lydia asking his opinion about shelves and color of rugs and him missing his kids and what wives and women in general nag men about. Charlotte feels somewhat threatened by this chick her husband John knows named Kelly, who is played by Anna Faris, who was the main chick Cindy in the "Scary Movie" movies. Kelly is an actress in Japan promoting her film and is just rather flaky.
John takes off for a few days somewhere to photograph this band, leaving Charlotte alone. So she spends her time with Bob and they just generally hang out and talk about life. This goes on for, about, roughly, 3 hours.
Bob hooks up with this lounge singer chick and Charlotte gets sort of jealous but realizes how goofy that is. Then comes the time where John is coming back from his trip and Bob must go back home. Bob and Charlotte say their goodbye's and Bob leaves. While driving to the airport, he spots Charlotte and gets out. Then the most famous scene from the movie happens.
Bill Murray pulls his pants down and says "JEALOUS MUCH, JAPAN?!?!?"
Ok, that didn't happen. I wish it did, but it didn't.
What really happens is Bob whispers something in Charlotte's ear, which ends in "Okay?" and Charlotte responds back "Okay". We don't find out what he said, which makes it all the more curious and, frankly, aggrivating.
What do I think he said? Maybe he said, "Hey, you're a hot chick and I just wanna grope you all night long, okay?" "Okay..."
Maybe. At least that's what I would've said. Scarlett Johansson is hot and I'll risk my present relationship with my girlfriend and say that. But in any case, the movie just about end's there.
Now, depending on how fast you read, this review probably took you about 3 or 4 or maybe 5 minutes to read. The movie is a little over an hour and a half. So this tells you that the script was probably 15 pages long and to fill out the rest of the time, Sophia just filmed leaves and mountains and unicorns and rainbows to fill out the movie. I like movies that are different but movies like this, which is sort of like an art film if you will, just kinda bore me. And I'll be damned if I could find a real plot anywhere in this mess I just wrote. Let's see...guy goes to Japan, girl goes to Japan, they become friends, hang out, they say goodbye, he leaves, the end.
Eh, screw it, I didn't like this movie. But you do get to see Scarlett Johansson in her underwear. Quite a lot. And that is always a good thing.
2 stars.
"Lost In Translation" on IMDb.com:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0335266/