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I wombat - 2004-04-05 22:24:19
Hm, yeah, it's better to see a fundamentally small and quiet movie, without hearing about it first, and the awards, well, I just try to ignore them. It occurs to me that "Lost In Translation" is another version of the "coming of a certain age movie" (for men) the same genre as a fairly dull movie I saw last night "Espana Otra Vez" About a man of a certain age with a good but pehaps habitual life, who is reminded of youthful passion, and kind of falls into it, but ends up back on track, a little wiser, but, perhaps, sadder. "Lost" was the subtler of the two, where what he found wasn't so much the memory of an idyll, as the reality, beautiful, disaffected, aimless youth.
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2fs - 2004-04-06 08:31:54
I'm not sure what you mean about Scarlet J.'s character - to me, she was perfectly cast as a woman who clearly isn't quite sure who she is yet, so sometimes she acts as if she knows while other times it's clear she's painfully uncertain. I think she should have won an award; Murray's performance was fine, but a bit too easy. I'd agree about the "ha-ha funny Japanese thing" (see the "Lutheran letter" at www.imomus.com for an interesting, if biased and somewhat point-missing take) except that I think we're so used to liking Bill Murray that we might not see that he's *not* an especially likable character here. I mean, he's not evil or anything - but I think his lostness manifests itself in a sort of nastiness, presumably derived from the character's former acting success, when he could get away with it.

But definitely easier to see w/o the hype. Luckily, I'm pretty immune to hype, in terms of expectations - although I confess that I get curious when something's hyped. Not a bad thing, I suppose...
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Paula - 2004-04-06 09:37:59
I'm not sure what you mean about Scarlet J.'s character - to me, she was perfectly cast as a woman who clearly isn't quite sure who she is yet, so sometimes she acts as if she knows while other times it's clear she's painfully uncertain

I'm not saying that Scarlett J didn't do her best with the role--she was very good. I'm saying the character was not compelling. (Kinda like Sofia Coppola herself, from what I glean from interviews and such).

She is every bored young upper middle class NYU senior hanging out at the Au Bon Pan, goofing on the regular people, but not having anything particularly interesting to contribute to the conversation/world.


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amatt - 2004-04-06 12:06:54
No use talking. This movie was no good, and Bill Murray puts me to sleep. (Contructive, huh?)
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