...of charm and strange: the blog

I just got back from seeing Lost in Translation, the new Sofia Coppola flick starring Bill Murray and Scarlet Johansson. (This is how much of a dork I am: this is the new Sofia Coppola flick, not the new Bill Murray flick.) Sometimes you set yourself up so much for a movie, expecting it to be the greatest thing in the entire world, based on what you've seen, heard, and read, so as you're sitting there in your big red seat telling yourself, There's no way it's going to be as good as you think it's going to be, so just stop expecting to love it and you'll love it.

These are the kinds of astronomical expectations I had for Lost in Translation. And I still could never have prepared myself for how much it moved me, how a film could touch upon such beauty and honesty so subtly. I walked out of the theater almost ready to burst into tears without really knowing why, except that I totally believed and invested in Bob and Charlotte, and the deep wells of loneliness they carry with them. This loneliness is ultimately what allows them to form a bond as they each float aimlessly through life, occasionally bouncing off things they ought to connect with, but never really sticking until they meet each other.

I guess I'm just sort of speechless. I don't know if I expect everyone to be as floored by this movie as I was, but there are definitely things about it that connected with me on a deep, deep emotional level. The feeling of being alone despite being surrounded -- crowded, even -- by people. The feeling of being lost, invisible, ubiquitous, in a world that you don't seem to be speaking the same language as (in this case, the characters happen to be in a location that, in fact, doesn't speak the same language). Ghost World, also starring Johansson, and set in America, explored similar themes, and I liked it almost as much.

There is pure pleasure in watching Bob and Charlotte's friendship deepen, and sometimes we simply witness their conversations for far longer than most films care to allow their characters. The comfort they find in each other is beyond the romantic; Lost in Translation is too good to simply turn this into a story about sex. I'm not even sure it's about love, so much as the value of human contact, and how little meaning we are able to find in our everyday lives without it, and how much meaning we are able to find in our everyday lives when we do find it. Bob and Charlotte's friendship is an exquisite and overwhelming combination of sweet and sad, and the film is almost a lock for the #1 spot on my "Best of 2003" list.

In other words: see this movie now.