The Unwarranted Backlash

[inman50]

After reading a number of posted reviews of Lost In Translation on IMDB, I'm heartened that the majority of people were swept away by Sofia Coppola's beautiful, funny, perceptive, and ultimately elegiac gem of a film. It bothers me, though, to see boring and repetitive, as well as mocking and disrespectful attached to some minority perspectives.

The film captures jet lag and geographic and cultural disorientation as well as any film in recent memory, and if Ms. Coppola is using that as a metaphor to underline the emotional disassociation of her two lead characters, then so be it. I never felt she is seriously making fun of the Japanese so much as empahsizing Bob and Charlotte's feeling of estrangement both in a foreign land and their respective personal lives. If anything, she's made Tokyo one of the most alluring cities ever captured on film.

If I have ANY quibble with the film, it's asking myself why someone as apparently sensitive and astute as Charlotte would marry someone as frenetically clueless as Giovanni Ribisi's character in the first place. But if Ms. Coppola is drawing from real life parallels with her own marriage to Spike Jonze, then one could argue that at the beginning of the relationship, things were quite different. All I know is that she has made a film that I have literally fallen in love with.

[pipsorcle]

"If I have ANY quibble with the film, it's asking myself why someone as apparently sensitive and astute as Charlotte would marry someone as frenetically clueless as Giovanni Ribisi's character in the first place. But if Ms. Coppola is drawing from real life parallels with her own marriage to Spike Jonze, then one could argue that at the beginning of the relationship, things were quite different. All I know is that she has made a film that I have literally fallen in love with."

Charlotte may have liked her marriage before she traveled with her husband to Japan. Remember, Charlotte's husband said to her something along the lines of "you didn't have to come with me on my business trip." However, Charlotte was curious to know her husband's busy life. It is clear Charlotte's husband has agreed to go about taking his business trip to Japan and thinks it's his priority. Charlotte's husband is in a busy state. One wonders what Charlotte's husband is like back in America.

[Raoul]

Don't get me wrong, It had its funny moments, I certainly enjoyed Bill's Character, but overall it went nowhere.

Not only that, it was sloppy film making. Did you notice in the scene where Charlotte and John met that Britneyspearsesque "rockstar" in the lobby that you could see the boom mike at the top of the screen? TWICE!!
Surely they could have gotten rid of it in post.

It's the kind of thing that one notices when the script is boreing and the film relies on imagery. Sofia needs a good editor.

I cared about the characters enough, but it wasn't really character driven. It certainly wasn't plot driven. Who writes a movie about two people NOT falling in love? By the way, haven't either of them ever heard of Email? The final goodbyes were so.... final. Don't the both live in the states generally. Charlotte and Bob apparently have no concept of how to have a fling. I don't know, but I'd like to find out what the French thought of this film. I bet they hated it. I KNOW they hated Basic Instinct. The idea that a guy could get that emotionally mixed up over a simple affair is absurd to french people.
The film had good scenes, and poignent. Like when she was watching those kids in the arcade. It was a good insight into her culture shock, or her fascination, or whatever but it had no story relevance. Then again, it's hard to relate things to a story when there's no story to relate them to. I think that she got away with this piece of auteurship because her last name's Copola, pure and simple.
Sofia should stick to directing. She's good at it and I believe that she could make some riveting film if she got her hands on a good script.
None the less, it's 12:1 and 14:1 to win best picure this year and if the Academy Voting pool decides to place themselves on a pedastle and artisticly backlash against Lord Of The Rings (4:1) then it has a fighting chance. Also consider that Cold Mountain could easily thin the LOTR vote out and leave Lost in Translation as the frontrunner. Still a pretty good bet.
A better bet is Bill for best actor. He swings plenty of sentimental value as a vetran. At 11:2, I like his chances. The Fronrunner is Sean Penn at 3:2 followed by Ben Kingsly at 9:2. Russel Crowe is even with Bill at 11:2