Lost In Translation

Two Americans suffer from jet lag and feelings of derailed existence in writer-director Sofia Coppola’s bittersweet story about midlife crisis, growing pains and cultural and geographic displacement. A middle-aged actor (Bill Murray) and a young woman (Scarlett Johansson) arrive at the posh Hyatt Park Tokyo hotel with their belongings and cumbersome emotional baggage in tow. They soon cross paths and make an unexpected connection that alters their lives. There is no other typical plot of which to speak. Coppola’s comic, tender character observations focus on a slash of time that long will resonate for two strangers from opposite ends of the marital spectrum—he has been married for 25 years, and she has been married for two, but neither is married to the right person necessarily—who venture into the volatile, exhilarating minefield that exists between friendship and romance.