Lost in Translation

'Lost in Translation' is supposedly a movie exploring the relationship between two people who meet in a strange country, and connect through mutual feelings of loneliness and confusion. However, this supposed relationship did not come across in the film. The overwhelming emotion that I got from both actors was one of apathy. I couldn't get any sense of what drew the two characters together. Yes, they were supposed to be lonely and both experiencing cultural dissonance, but the pacing of the movie is so slow and the characters so passive that I do not feel much emotional involvement with their plight.


Of course, this passiveness and lack of any discernible chemistry or plot could also be described as intentional, and imperative to the telling of the story. The apathy that the characters give off is to show how lost, confused and unfulfilled their lives are. Unfortunately their apathy does not make me have any emotional investment in the characters or their journey to overcome their isolation.

In the film, wide or very wide shots are used to emphasise the emotional state of the characters, specifically their aloneness. When the characters are in a crowd, or if they are in a landscape, these types of shots are often used, with the character taking up very little of the frame. Since the characters, specifically Charlotte, are so small within the large, empty frame, it reinforces that feeling of being small and adrift.

In the climatic scene near the end of the film, where Bob sees Charlotte in the crowd, a very wide shot is used to show their embrace. In the hustle and bustle of the crowds, an empty space exists around the two characters, perhaps showing that even though they are physically in the city, they are not really a part of it.

While I personally did not like this film, it is very hard to review it critically without admitting that a lot of the things that I did not like can be explained away as intentional and helping to set the theme and tone of the film.