Lost in Translation ****½ (2003, Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Giovanni Ribisi) – Classic Movie Review 666

Perhaps never better, Bill Murray put in his bid in 2003 for an Oscar as a fading, ageing American movie star who goes to Tokyo to do a whisky ad. Lonely in his hotel, he bumps into unhappily married young Scarlett Johansson, who has been abandoned by her husband, Giovanni Ribisi. What happens next in this bittersweet brief encounter is brilliantly poignant and funny.

Writer-director Sofia Coppola captures the sights and sounds of Tokyo brilliantly, as well as conjuring up the dislocated, angst-ridden American lives so exquisitely. For his brio funny–sad turn, Murray was Oscar nominated, but disappointingly he lost out to Sean Penn in Mystic River for the Best Actor Oscar. The young Johansson matches him scene for scene, laugh for laugh.

But Coppola won a much deserved Oscar for the Best Original Screenplay and she was Oscar nominated as Best Director, so it proved a triumph for her. The film was also nominated as Best Picture.

It did better at the Golden Globes, where it won Best Picture – Comedy or Musical, Best Actor and Best Screenplay. And the British fell for it charms, since Murray, Johansson and editor Sarah Flack won Bafta awards.

Don’t miss this marvellous movie.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 666

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