Day 10 - Lost in Translation



Day 10               Lost in Translation [2003]

Writer(s)                         Sofia Coppola
Director                           Sofia Coppola
Cinematography            Lance Acord
Music Composition      Kevin Shields
Leads                               Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Anna Faris, Giovanni Ribisi
Production                      American Xoetrope, Elemental Films

IMDb                                     7.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes              95%

Well-known film this one - which I have seen before. A dreamy, calm film that I associate with Sofia Coppola (The Beguiled, Somewhere, Marie Antoinette). That pool scene in Somewhere with the Strokes playing in the background springs to mind. The film is a love story of sorts. Two lost souls in a foreign city with no friends. Murray a fatigued, once-famous actor shooting whisky commercials, Johansson a newly-wed who has followed her photographer husband (Ribisi) on one of his jobs. Both lost for different reasons they bond because of their similarly dry wit. Perhaps Coppola’s main win is the sexual tension that she builds between the characters for the whole film. The platonic love between two married people which had me wondering the whole way through if they were going to cheat. It feels a bit slow at times but I think the movie’s pace perfectly matches its subject matter. There are jokes in there that slip through the net the first watch, but this time around I found myself laughing at the bone-dry humour. Good, solid cinema.

Acting                           3.5 / 4
Writing                         3.5 / 4
Cinematography            3 / 4
Music                               2 / 4

HWF rating               3 / 4