An Appreciation – Lost in Translation

October 22nd, 2015 | POSTED BY Allen Almachar

Scarlett Johansson was only eighteen years old at the time of the film’s release. Her performance shows a maturity that went beyond her years. She was working well before this (such as her turn in Ghost World (2001)), but it was this performance that planted her in the public’s conscience and took her to stardom. Perhaps her role of Charlotte worked because she’s asked to be nothing more than a young woman. She exudes an even level of awareness and confusion. She can narrow down what it is that troubles her, but is unsure of how to fix it. It would be years before Johansson would pick up a gun and go gallivanting in comic book blockbusters. Seeing her again here shows how far she has progressed as an actress, and how much potential there still is for her to grow.

Rumor had it that Coppola wrote the character of Bob specifically for Bill Murray, and if he were to turn it down she would not have made the movie. Luckily, he agreed to the part, and delivered arguably his best performance to date. Everything there is to love about Murray is showcased here. He still has that dry, nonchalant sense of humor that dominated his early career, yet he also incorporates a dramatic flair with very little effort. Murray demonstrates complete control of an actor’s best tool: his face. With the tiniest glance or tilt of his head, Murray can express deep emotion. During the scene where Bob shoots his commercial – with the Japanese director asking him to repeat his line over and over again – Murray’s tiny looks and gestures play hilariously.

This is the performance that Murray’s career was building up to. We can see in his previous work the nuance that would come to blossom. In Groundhog Day (1993) or even Ghostbusters (1984), Murray displays broad comedy, but there was also a hidden layer that made him stand apart. In his later work, Murray completely embraced the approach. Jim Jarmusch’s Broken Flowers (2005) fully depended on it, and Wes Anderson utilizes the same kind of delivery in nearly all of his productions. It may have come to the point of overabundance in recent years, but as Bob Harris, Murray’s restrained and detailed performance was the lynchpin that held the entire film together.

When Sofia Coppola won the Oscar for her screenplay, one of the people she mentioned as a major influence was Wong Kar Wai. I can see how she could have been inspired by his work, specifically with In the Mood for Love (2000). The tone is very similar, as well as the premise of two souls passing at a particular time and place. However, Wong Kar Wai’s film plays more as a romance, I’m not so sure Coppola’s does the same. Bob and Charlotte do grow close in their time together, and there’s no doubt they’ve developed an emotional bond. But it’s more on the psychological level than the physical. They realize that they’ll most likely never see each other again, but expressing their “love” through sex is inappropriate. They relate out of mutual understanding rather than physical attraction. It would make sense then, that when Bob ends up sleeping with the hotel lounge’s jazz singer (Catherine Lambert), it doesn’t act as a real detriment to his and Charlotte’s friendship, because he feels nothing for that person. A light touch on a foot is all the physical intimacy they need.

So what does that final scene signify, where Bob chases down Charlotte and whispers in her ear before sharing a goodbye kiss? A lot of theories have been thrown around over what he said, and some sites have even broken down and enhanced the audio to make it clearer. In the end though, does it really matter? That moment belongs to them and no one else. They’ve gone through the last couple of days together, and will carry that experience the rest of their lives. One of the things that make life worth living is sharing it with someone close to you. That’s what they were looking for, and that’s what they found in each other. We can only wonder where Bob and Charlotte will end up down the road, but we understand their connection is a special one. The look Charlotte gives is all we need to know how much that moment means to the both of them.

The title of Lost in Translation can mean any number of things. Does it represent these characters traveling to a different country and experiencing a different culture? Does it point towards their lives hovering in place, searching for meaning and value? Sofia Coppola presents questions such as these without providing an answer. And maybe that’s what life is all about: a continuous search for understanding of our place in the world and how we are to exist in it. We may or may not ever get the answers we seek, but it’s the journey that makes it all worth it.

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Anna Faris, Bill Murray, Broken Flowers, Catherine Lambert, Ghost World, Ghostbusters, Giovanni Ribisi, Groundhog Day, In the Mood for Love, Jim Jarmusch, Lance Acord, Lost in Translation, Scarlett Johansson, Sofia Coppola, Wes Anderson, Wong Kar Wai