We watched "Lost in Translation" in the Leonard Maltin class tonight. Sofia Coppola directed, starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johannsen. This movie is fantastic. I normally am not a fan of character pieces without strong plot lines, but this film worked because the characters are so wonderfully drawn, both in the script, and in the actors' performances. Bill Murray in particular is astounding. He plays Bob Harris, an actor in Tokyo doing a whiskey commercial (the overseas, especially Japanese, celebrity endorsement phenomenon is an incredibly interesting thing in and of itself). He happens to run into Johannsen's Charlotte, the wife of a photographer who is mostly hanging out at the hotel by herself. They end up becoming friends and wiling away the time together.

The chemistry between the actors is just fascinating to watch. They don't become best friends immediately, and it's only at the end that they really, finally click, yet the silences and moments between them are never awkward; there's a really lovely energy between these people who just happened to find each other. The film is beautifully shot. The cinematographer, Lance Acord, who spoke to us tonight, told us that the look was influenced by Sofia Coppola's photography and the city of Tokyo as a whole. He did a lot of drifting and rack focus shots to bring the bright neon lights of the city into as many shots as possible; this could have looked garish and bright, but instead was wonderful mood lighting inside the almost pristine hotel much of the film took place in.

This film is charming, and at times hysterically funny. In particular, one scene with Murray in a hospital waiting room attempting to talk to an elderly Japanese man is one of the funniest things I've seen in film in the past year. There's such truth in this scene, it's something that all of us have experienced to some extent; it's this honesty and clarity that really makes the film what it is. It's not humor based on cheap physical slapstick or vulgar jokes, but instead on the real experiences of people who meet every day, by chance, and affect one another's lives.