Bob Harris is a famous movie star who maybe hasn’t made a film in while. While sitting in a hotel bar, he tells Charlotte upon first formally meeting her that he is in Tokyo being paid $2 million to endorse a whiskey when he should be doing a play somewhere.

Earlier Bob is noticed by another American in the bar and politely moves away. With fame, there must be a lot of loneliness.

But for Bill Murray “Lost in Translation” would not have worked. This movie is all about subtle timing and understatement that is genuinely funny in a light introspective way. Light, yes, but maybe more given the film’s closing moments.

Director Sofia Coppola’s second feature film is so smart and, yet, simple that it is nearly perfect. There are times when it makes you feel like a part of the party as though you could reach out to the screen and pick up a drink and mingle about. There are other times when you come to understand the loneliness of the two main characters and understand more why they might be attracted to one another. It hits the mark.

Bob Harris (Bill Murray), a famous American movie star, arrives in Tokyo to shoot a commercial. Tokyo is filled with lights and action arousing Bob from slumber in his limo. He is greeted at the hotel by several smiling people who give him gifts and apparently know his schedule. Bob comments that they’re so short and sweet, so, very Japanese; no one understands, any laughs are unintentional. While in the hotel elevator, towering over the other occupants, Bob notices Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson). The two Americans smile at one another--a chance meeting, a turning point in their lives. Charlotte would have found his joke funny, she would understand it.

Charlotte is married to a photographer named John (Giovanni Ribisi) who is in Tokyo on a job. John leaves Charlotte in the hotel while he is working. Charlotte is lonely and finds companionship with Bob. The two flirt innocently. Bob has time for Charlotte and Charlotte wants time with Bob. They understand this need without actually articulating it; no translation is necessary.

“Lost in Translation” spends time following Bob and Charlotte around for a few days in Tokyo. Occasionally, the two are interrupted by their spouses—Bob’s wife calls him on the cell phone, and John pops in every now and then between shoots. We know that neither Bob nor Charlotte will leave their mate for the other, this is but a temporary paring.

Tokyo, the film’s third star, is a strange and exciting city with great lights and mystery. Coppola smartly displays the new and the old. At one point, Charlotte walks through an arcade where Japanese youths play an assortment of interactive video games. At another point, Charlotte visits a temple and watches a service of some sort. She tells a friend on the phone that the service made her feel nothing, she cries, but her friend has no time, and wouldn’t understand anyway.

Charlotte tells Bob that she doesn't know what she wants to do with her life. Charlotte wanted to be a writer but that wore off, and she says that her infatuation with photography was just a passing phase like a young girl's love for horses. Bob smartly encourages her to keep writing. Charlotte is an observer. She notices more than just a person on vacation that might stare a little longer than normal or take a picture of something that the rest of us have taken for granted for years. Charlotte's longing is what breeds creativity, whereas Bob's longing is the result of regret.

"Lost in Translation" is a tiny inspiration about understanding and listening and comprehending an empty feeling that we can easily dismiss as loneliness. It tells us that being alone for a lifetime may be offset by moments of togetherness.

Jonathan W. Hickman, 2003