Lost in Translation

"It's Suntory time..." Melancholy in its purest cinematic form. Scarlett is wonderful, but the clear driving force of the film is the incredibly natural Bill Murray. Sensitively filmed and with an absolutely great atmosphere that completely absorbs you and does not let you go until the closing credits. (2007-01-22)

This very sweet and unforced film about falling in platonic love perhaps could not have been written and directed without living through a similar experience. Lost in Translation is harmoniously fluid, without a single cliché of the romance genre, with an atypical and yet pleasantly well-coordinated couple, sincere dialogue and a minimalist conclusion with a stronger emotional impact than even the great romantic classics offer. “The more you know who you are and what you want, the less you let things upset you”. (2021-06-04)

YES! Anyone who says this film is amazing and doesn't hold back the superlatives is absolutely right. A beautiful love story that managed to avoid all unnecessary clichés and superficialities, while being (no wonder) original. Praise for the directing, which is extraordinarily civil, non-stylized, in a way inconspicuous and draws the viewer into the film. Praise for Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray for acting performances that go far below the surface of the characters. Murray's mimic minimalism, in particular, is worthy of infinite respect – how little is enough to perfectly portray a character... Just to have the gift. Praise for the music, the camera... and, of course, above all the screenplay. The way two lost people find each other in a world of unknown signs and strange morals is simply magnificent. For all the side motifs that Lost in Translation offers, the searching (for themselves) of the main characters in the middle of the unknown seems to me to be the most beautiful thing I have taken from the film. It can probably be seen as a statement about an era, about the meeting of different cultures, but the most beautiful thing in it is precisely the most intimate. What it can do without blatant phrases and shocking scenes. What stands out so beautifully against the backdrop of an artificial and ridiculously complicated world – the story of a fleeting blending of two souls. And in such a sensitive and tender rendition that I prefer to stop and go and "experience". (2004-03-13)

A very nice story. Amazing acting (Bill Murray gives the performance of his life). If your mood was hovering around freezing point before seeing Lost in Translation, afterward you’ll be at pleasant room temperature. It’s the kind of movie that puts you in a good mood and makes for a better day. You’ll probably also have a sudden urge to fly to Tokyo to play a round of golf. At least I did. ;-) (2007-10-09)

A beautifully fragile narrative about sharing loneliness, uprootedness and existential uncertainty in the midst of excessive affluence. Lost in Translation is a film about superficiality that lets us look beneath the surface and discover beauty there. It is also two hours in the company of someone you laugh at a little at the beginning and who by the end you feel will always be a part of your life, even if you never see them again. (2022-09-17)