Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your
contribution is not tax-deductible.)
PayPal Acct: 
Feedback: 
Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):
| [ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, [5] ] |
What a lot of people don't know is that many A-list celebrities in America, including Harrison Ford, Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise have shilled for different companies in the Asian market when they wouldn't dare do it in America. Bill Murray's washed up actor, Bob Harris, in the Sofia Coppola film, Lost in Translation is about to follow suit.
Bob is on a solo trip to Tokyo, Japan, to film a commercial and a few print ads for Santori whiskey. He left his wife and kids at home, much to his wife's chagrin. His wife is naggy and buligerent, a stereotype for middle-aged, bored with life housewives. Even while he is across the globe, Bob's wife is remodeling the house and faxing him floorplans for this room and Fed-Ex'ing carpet samples for that room. Bob's hope of a quiet vacation, bellied up to the hotel bar with no ball-and-chain attached to his leg, is for naught.
Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) is the wife of a famous rock and roll photographer (Giovanni Ribisi) who has little or no time for his bride. He's very in love with his wife, but more in love with his job. What she thought would be a nice second honeymoon turns out to be a solo trip of her own, wandering aimlessly through a country where she is seemingly the only English speaking person that she knows.
A chance meeting at the hotel sparks a friendship between Charlotte and Bob. The twenty-something Charlotte acts like she couldn't care less that fifty-something Bob is a famous Hollywood star. Her only interest is for someone to show her some attention and Bob is more than willing, as he is a little attention starved himself. As their friendship grows stronger, so do their feelings for each other. They begin spending every spare moment they have together and move dangerously closer towards an illicit affair. Will their chance encounter alter the rest of their lives or will they manage to uphold the vows they made in marriage?
As a newlywed, it was tough to watch this film and keep an open mind about what I was viewing. I have just agreed to those same vows of marriage and the last thing I wanted to feel was that these two characters should cheat on their spouses, even though their marriages were far from happy ones. However, this excellent script (also by Coppola) made you wish that Bob's wife would trip over her Oriental rug and knock herself permanently out on her formica table, spilling blood all over her Mizrahi designer blouse and tainting the copy of Oprah magazine adorning said table. It made you wish that the photographer would get caught in bed with the painfully dumb actress (Anna Farris) that so heavily flirted with him while he stood next to his frowning bride so that she would at least get a receipt on him by repaying the favor. That's not what I wanted to imagine in my mind while watching this film, but I did. Ah, the power of movies.
Coppola has crafted one of the best love stories in recent memory and one of the most visually stunning. The relationship that is hatched between Bob and Charlotte is a beautiful one, knowing and learning more about each other in a few days then maybe they ever have with their spouses. They have brilliant fun as they trek through eye-poppingly gorgeous Tokyo, with enough lights and pizazz to give Las Vegas a run for its money. It's the type of fun that you can only have with someone you are madly in love with. Johansson's gaze at Murray while he is karaokeing to Elvis Costello's "(What's So Funny About) Peace, Love and Understanding" and his oddly beautiful rendition of Roxy Music's "More Than This" is the look that you get when you have just shared that first longing kiss with your soulmate. I was truly feeling the effects of the film, all things considered. Coppola is to be hailed for this film, an incredible feat for only her second film.
There is big Oscar buzz for Murray's acting in this film, and rightly so. He has taken the road less traveled by his Saturday Night Live and comedy peers and is now churning out some excellent work as a dramatic actor. He has trumped Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler (though who can deny Punch-Drunk Love?) and countless others who have tried to take the broad step into drama. He is fantastic as the curmudgeonly Harris, a man just searching for a little happiness in his otherwise mundane, naggy existence. Johansson is also in excellent form as the directionless young adult who, too, is unhappy with her life and its future outlook. It's only when these two are together that they are truly happy and their on-screen chemistry makes that abundantly clear.
I do hope that the Oscar voters have this film in mind when it's time to lay down the votes. The heart of cinema is in little films like this one. Little films with a powerful voice.
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]