Lost In Translation--Explained At Last

Yes, I know, it's been ages since I said Lost In Translation became my favorite movie of all-time, and I was asked to explain myself. I started on this almost as soon as the request came in, and I'm going to go with that, plus I'm going to add some more thoughts now as I'm thinking about the movie. I hope what I say about it won't turn out to be a jumbled mess. What follows is what I first wrote, with edits within that, and then some more that I wrote this evening/morning.

Well, you’ve put a good challenge before me, because I don’t normally have to explain why I liked or didn’t like a particular movie. I’ll do my best—not to convince you why you should like it or find it more than a mediocre film, but I’ll give you my perspective on it and we can go from there.

To start, I probably should have offered more detail in the first post about why I love the film the way I do, but in that particular post, I was using it more to outline why I thought the movie would work as a silent film more than I was outlining why I rated it so highly.

With that said, some of what I said in the original post applies. I did indeed love the sparseness, the mysterious and dark mood conveyed by the filming methods, the score and the way the actors accentuated all that in their own mannerisms to convey much with little. And where you thought it was too depressing a film, I loved how it was that depressing, and I thought the circumstances of the characters more-than-plausible, particularly Bill Murray’s character (Bob).

Whereas you saw the movie based on recommendations from others who said you would love it, in part because you love traveling, I had no one telling me to see it; the DVD was a gift to me and I otherwise may not have seen it, though my own curiosity may have gotten me to at some point. Plus, I saw it on a small screen (25” versus movie-theater-sized screen) at midnight on a Saturday/Sunday.

I wouldn’t have recommended, necessarily, this movie to those who like to travel. I think that would change the expectations you have of the movie. It’s not a movie that would convince me to travel to Japan.

I relate it to someone going on a business trip, the way he did, as someone who’s doing something because someone else said it would make him more money. It’s not something he wants to do, but perhaps being in Japan, he’ll still feel appreciated, and he’ll make a hefty chunk of change to go along with it. I think he found he was just being used there as well, which perhaps would explain what might have been his indifference toward Japan or its culture, though as I’ll explain further on, I don’t think he totally rejected Japan or its way of life. He did get out of the hotel a few times on his outings with Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson’s character), though you do see him a lot in the hotel bar also, particularly early on, and also because that’s where the commercial was being shot. If you’re on a business trip, as I’ve found by my own personal experience (and that of people I know), you try to simplify things to get through the experience—do the obligated things; being a traveler in the sense that you or I might, isn’t really a part of business travel. I think the wife, in Charlotte’s case, has a higher expectation of spending quality time with her husband on such a trip, not realizing that he’s in his own zone.

In Charlotte’s case, there are many spouses who travel with their other half on business trips and have to find something to fill the time. In her case, that time was a period of transition because she had just finished school and she was lacking direction in her life, lacking in encouragement, almost.

Neither Bob nor Charlotte were there traveling on vacation. In her case, she was tagging along after finishing school, trying to figure out where she was at that particular stage of her life, while he was in  much the same stage, though at a different time, in his own life. Personally and professionally, they were dealing with issues that put them in a dark place, in a place others close to them couldn't understand.

I think Bob was feeling a bit of a pawn—Japan’s using him as a pawn to sell whiskey; his wife’s using his money as a pawn to say she and the kids are used to not having him around. He couldn’t figure out why she would figure picking out a carpet color would be that important to FedEx him samples at his hotel, when it turned out they wouldn’t be able to use the one he picked out, however unenthusiastic he was about his original choice. I found her character to be much less sympathetic; it's like she's saying to him, I can make you feel bad about missing your son's birthday, and yet it's just as well you're not around, and I can live just fine without you, thank you very much. His wife seemed to value his money more highly than him; she seemed like she always had something better to do than to talk. Then she got bitter when he brought up the improvements he wanted to make to himself—she basically told him to stay in Japan if that’s what he wanted—almost as if she didn’t want him to evolve.

The person Charlotte called tuned her out in a similar manner—unintentionally perhaps yet tuned out all the same. Charlotte was reaching out, alone, trying to explain to that person how things were in Japan, while the other person was tuning her out. I saw her husband tuning her out as well. He was indifferent to her going on the trip, and was indifferent to anything she tried to tell him (they seemed to be in two different worlds—him firmly established with his career, her not), and then displayed this when the starlet walked in and they virtually ignored Charlotte. Then at dinner Charlotte’s husband and the starlet were talking around Charlotte again.

Later in that scene, they both convey how they’re looking to escape, evidenced by what Bob said to her after Charlotte had excused herself from the table. The rest of their adventures were their escape from their lives.

I think at the point Bob had his fling, he had just talked to his wife, and Charlotte had left for the day. Bob, I think, was always a step behind in realizing things—his wife’s indifference toward him and her lack of need for anything but money from him (she didn’t seem to want emotional or physical support). He realized, only after the fling, how much he had hurt Charlotte, even though they had been undergoing a more subtle fling of their own.

I think both characters show that being lost in translation is more than just a real language barrier (English v. Japanese). They display a communication gap between their respective spouses. Charlotte’s husband is more focused on his career, and the starlet he photographed.

...

I think Bob figured out that he could get things he wanted with his fame (things that didn't require emotion), all except what he seemed to want. He got fame; he got money; he got women; he lost fame; perhaps he lost a bit of the money, the freedom he used to have before a wife and kids, he seemed to have a wife who could do without him just fine; he got fame again in Japan; he certainly got more money; he discovered his fame could still get him things--things, though. For Charlotte, he could bring her perspective; for Bob, she could bring him someone who didn't care about his fame, but someone who actually enjoyed his company, and vice versa, though his way of showing affection toward Charlotte was to stroke her feet, to take her to the hospital to have a foot taken care of, when laying in bed to stroke her foot rather than any other part of her. Perhaps in his own relationship with his wife, he was showing indirect advances the way he showed Charlotte, and he didn't know how to communicate that he was showing love and affection toward her. And over the time of their marriage, she learned to do without, when all along he was providing it, at least in his own mind and his own way.

And after the argument with his wife and Charlotte away, he could still find a use for his fame, but he also learned how his fame could hurt, if not his wife, then at least what it did to Charlotte. He, like myself in a lot of circumstances, living in a dark place, and not always cognizant of how what I do affects someone else, finally comes to that realization with Charlotte at the end while he's in the cab heading back to the airport, and he sees her walking down the street. He figures it out, maybe too late for his life back at home, but he figures it out with Charlotte. He chases her down the crowded street, whispers something in her ear, embraces and then kisses her, walking away backward.

Charlotte and Bob are married to people who have themselves figured out (at least it seems implied that they do), while Charlotte and Bob are finishing stages in their lives that cause them to reexamine life as they know it. She's finishing up school and can't find her niche, and he's on the downside of an acting career and riding out that string. In the dark, they stumble upon each other.

In the end, I don't find my words an adequate way to explain to you why I made an emotional connection with this film. Maybe it was the place and time I was in while I was watching it. Maybe it's because I can relate well to not being understood, or trying to explain myself and not having words to do so, similar to what I'm feeling now. Sometimes, as with this movie, I find that words can't convey emotion well enough. This movie demonstrated that you can express a lot of emotions without a lot of dialogue. The light, or lack thereof, conveys a mood; the song choices, wardrobe, expressions, setting--I can't explain it but all of the above worked for me. Maybe it's that I didn't have anyone else's expectations weighing upon me, even slightly, as I watched the movie. Maybe it's just that I like tall actors who tap into something I feel within myself, and I long, for once, to have a gorgeous and intelligent red-head adore me. On a superficial note, I wanted to be the one kissing Charlotte at the end.

Why can't Bob feel down just because he's got the spoils of his profession? Do you have to lack materially to feel down, or to make it more understandable? I know there have been times where I've done something really special, in my mind, and then it feels empty when no one's around to share the moment with me, and when I try to explain the moment, I get the feeling I'm wasting my breath because I'm in my own little world, and the other person's in theirs, and there's no bridge to connect to either place.

Comments

[Lola]

Theres something about this movie.. The connection between the chatacters in it that just fascinates me. The vibes they share. Makes me feel not so insane knowing that 2 people can share some kind of unspoken connection.. and they both know it.. Its nice :)

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[Jon]

Good synopsis. Thanks :-)

[Jimmy]

Or maybe I'm reading into it more than I should. : )

I enjoyed the sparse, dark tone of the movie, and did indeed identify well with the feelings of the characters.

[April]

Jimmy, I'm glad you've finally offered your exegesis of this film! Like Leah, I also didn't really like it when I watched it (there didn't seem to be much to it; I couldn't find anything to captivate me), so I wondered why you liked it so much.

I think maybe I need to watch it again. Maybe I missed a lot of the subtleties that you mention.

I can definitely understand that identifying with the characters makes the entire movie much more real and enjoyable, even in a bittersweet way. Thanks for sharing.