Lost In Translation (2003)
Lost In Translation (2003) 6/10
I didn’t like it the first time i saw it, and rewatching it a few years later, my opinion has improved- but only slightly. The performances are great: Scarlett Johansson is luminous and exudes incredible screen presence, while Bill Murray has mastered the deadpan delivery. However, Sofia Coppola’s film feels like an amateur rip-off of a Wong Kar Wai film. The film never gets to establish the mood and the various scenes movie in a pedestrian , dreary pace. Nothing much happens, and probably the biggest weakness in the film is that while Johansson and Murray are great individually, there is no chemistry between them. Unlike Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung in In The Mood For Love, who have sizzling chemistry, the friendship tinged with hints of romance between the leads of Lost in Translation is simply uninteresting. Coppola also fails to capture an effective mood and result is a film that is slow and oftentimes boring. Only the strong performances of Johansson and Murray lift this film up from mediocrity and even then, it is undeserving of the high praise heaped upon it. If anything, it feels like Wong Kar Wai-lite.
