Lost In Translation

Distributor: Universal
Certificate: PG
Director: Sofia Coppola
Executive Producer: Francis Ford Coppola
Cast: Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Giovanni Ribisi
Extras: Yes

It’s easy to see why Sofia Coppola’s completely shot in Japan movie Lost in Translation was a wow with everyone on its cinema release despite being ideally suited to the DVD audience, it’s funny (yet low key) and with an over riding strain of melancholia at its heart Lost in Translation also contains the Bill Murray performance of a lifetime (laconic, stately and heavy browed with a kind of seen it all world weariness).

Murray plays Bob Harris, stuck in Tokyo filming a whisky commercial (Harris is a burnt out movie star) who crosses paths with Johansson’s Charlotte (married to a workaholic photographer), the pair strike up an unlikely friendship as they learn a few intrinsic facts about life.

What really elevates the movie is that the relationship between Harris and Charlotte never ascends above the platonic, both happy in simply needing a companion, saving us from what could have otherwise been a heavy dose of tackyness. Following on from the Virgin Suicides Coppola is definitely a talent to watch.

EXTRAS include a doco Found in Conversation looking at the making of the movie, deleted scenes, an extended version of the Japanese show Harris appears during the movie, City Girl music video by Kevin Shields, Interviewed in Rome (the cast talk about making the movie) and behind the scenes feature Lost on Location.