Lost In Translation

There is a unique feel to this movie.  It manages to have a dreamlike quality, though the characters in the film are hardly living in the kind of dream they would prefer.  This is a movie that is about many things, but as I watched it again some 9 years after first seeing it in the movie theater, I was struck by one theme in particular.  That theme is intimacy.

There is one emotion that both Bob (Bill Murray) and Charlotte (Scarlett Johnansson) certainly feel: loneliness.  The film follows these two characters as they each journey through their respective lives of isolation and searching.  Bob Harris is a famous American movie actor who has journeyed to Tokyo to shoot an advertisement for a Japanese whiskey called Santore.  Charlotte is in Tokyo with her photographer husband as he is on a photo shoot  in Tokyo.  The two of them are staying in the same swanky hotel, and they happen upon each other one night at the hotel bar while listening to the hotel bar singer.  Bob is in a mid-life crisis of sorts, as his distance from his wife and kids is not only geographical, but also metaphysical.  Charlotte is feeling increasingly distant from her husband, and while he works on his photo shoots, she listens to self help books and visits Buddhist shrines, trying to discover some meaning for her life.  Their loneliness is exacerbated by the fact that they are foreigners.  Neither of them speak Japanese, so everything around them presents barriers.  In what is possibly the signature scene of the movie, Bob Harris is trying to shoot the whiskey commercial.  After shooting the first take, the director of the commercial gives a lengthy piece of direction to the translator.  The translator in turn relays the message to Harris, and it seems to be much more brief than what the director said to the translator.  Other scenes like this ensue.  Anyone who has been in a country wherein their native language is not the primary language spoken can identify with these scenes.

Having set the stage, the theme of intimacy begins to take center stage.  As Bob and Charlotte meet, they begin to spend time together.  They are clearly at very different stages in their lives, but they also seem to have a lot in common.  The connection that they have is beautifully depicted.  My favorite example of this is a scene at a nightclub wherein the two characters are sitting together, and Charlotte lovingly rests her head on Bob's shoulder.  There is an unspoken connection between these two characters that goes beyond anything physical.  This is most clearly seen near the end of the film.  Bob has a one night stand with the resident lounge singer.  The next morning, Charlotte knocks on his door, hoping to spend another day together.  She is disappointed to find this situation, and the rest of their day together is spent in awkward conversation and tension.  What is the problem?  They have not slept together, or even exchanged more than a head on the shoulder.  However, they have connected in such a deep way that Charlotte does feel betrayal and disappointment.  It is clear that there is chemistry between them, and they are both needy.  So, to Charlotte, Bob's actions are insensitive.

I think that the closing images of this film are among the most evocative I have ever seen.  I will not spoil the ending.  Suffice to say, there is a certain controversy to it, and the mystery of the ending does indeed give the entire film an elusive air.  It is painful to watch how distant both of the main characters are from their respective spouses, and how they deal with that pain together is what the movie is about.  Their individual pain forges an intimacy with each other that goes beyond anything sexual.  It seems that these two have some degree of physical attraction, but whatever exists in that realm is secondary to the spiritual connection the two characters have.  Bill Murray is amazing in this movie, and I wish he would have won the Oscar for it.  He brings a world weary quality to his performance that really is the heart of this film.  In some ways, the truths of the book of Ecclesiastes are on display here, as the weariness of life is on display as well as the simple comfort of human contact.  Sofia Coppola, who wrote and directed this movie, uses all of the elements of film making (photography, soundtrack, dialogue, etc) to create an elusive yet palatable tone to this movie.  The tone on its own makes this movie so watchable.  The characters and them of the movie make it exceptional.