Lost in Translation
Feb. 11th, 2004 08:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
callistotoniI finally got around to seeing this movie. I wanted to see it when it was first released, but it wasn't playing anywhere close, so I had to wait until the DVD release. Bottom line is that if you haven't seen it yet you should run out and rent it soon or soonest.
Very intelligent, sometimes laugh-out-loud-funny, but always heartwrenching. Maybe I just saw it through my own personal life-experiance filter(s), but the movie really captured the loneliness that is possible even within relationships and when surrounded by other people. I especially liked how the characters are depicted as not being blind or stupid or whiny--their predicaments come form perfectly reasonable choices. Also good is the contrast between the middle-aged and the young. (At one point the Scarlett Johanson character asks the Bill Murray character if "it gets any easier", to which he quickly answers No, then after a beat responds slowly, Yes. I think middle age is like that: you think "Oh Jeez life never gets better", but then you think "no, I'm way less screwed up than I used to be". The whole movie is filled with these intense, personal, true moments. And the photography and shot set ups are beautiful, as well.
When I first watched the movie I felt like it took too long to get going. But on reflection I could not think of where Sopia C. could have cut it. Then I realized that this feeling was my reaction to the movie: I wanted to get the two characters together because it was so hard to endure their isolation. But the set up was essential to the spirit of the film. If I have a real complaint it is the ending, which might be, in a way, a cop-out, but can also be seen as about the only way you could end such a movie. No spoilers: If you want to discuss it over a beer or coffee look me up :-) .
And Bill Murray should get the Best Actor Oscar. Really-o truely-o.
I want to see this movie again, but not right away.
Very intelligent, sometimes laugh-out-loud-funny, but always heartwrenching. Maybe I just saw it through my own personal life-experiance filter(s), but the movie really captured the loneliness that is possible even within relationships and when surrounded by other people. I especially liked how the characters are depicted as not being blind or stupid or whiny--their predicaments come form perfectly reasonable choices. Also good is the contrast between the middle-aged and the young. (At one point the Scarlett Johanson character asks the Bill Murray character if "it gets any easier", to which he quickly answers No, then after a beat responds slowly, Yes. I think middle age is like that: you think "Oh Jeez life never gets better", but then you think "no, I'm way less screwed up than I used to be". The whole movie is filled with these intense, personal, true moments. And the photography and shot set ups are beautiful, as well.
When I first watched the movie I felt like it took too long to get going. But on reflection I could not think of where Sopia C. could have cut it. Then I realized that this feeling was my reaction to the movie: I wanted to get the two characters together because it was so hard to endure their isolation. But the set up was essential to the spirit of the film. If I have a real complaint it is the ending, which might be, in a way, a cop-out, but can also be seen as about the only way you could end such a movie. No spoilers: If you want to discuss it over a beer or coffee look me up :-) .
And Bill Murray should get the Best Actor Oscar. Really-o truely-o.
I want to see this movie again, but not right away.
