So today, I've been pondering about the film Lost In Translation which I saw yesterday and which I thought was so excellent. My final analysis of the film is that it is about uncertainty: the uncertainty of life, love, careers, marriage, etc....
On one hand is Bill Murray's character, Bob Harris, who is an actor[apparently an actor after his prime, about in his 50's] who is in Japan to shoot a series of commericals for a brand of whisky. On the other hand is Scarlett Johansson's character, Charlotte, a young woman in her early 20's who made the trek to Japan with her husband who is there for work as a fashion photographer.
Both are in a foreign country, do not know the language and for different reasons are isolated from what goes on around themselves. Bob, other than the times he is surrounded by an entourage of Japanese movie industry types or hotel staff, remains fairly solitary when not filming his tv commericals and chooses to pass much of his time in the bar of the hotel where he is staying. Charlotte, although married seems to have a certain detachment from her husband who seems to be constantly on the go with his photography jobs. Charlotte and her husband are staying in the same hotel as Bob. And one day Bob catches a glimpse of Charlotte in the elevator and through a series of bumping in to each other in the hotel bar or the hotel swimming pool, they become acquainted with each other gradually. Their meetings also happen to occur many times during the middle of the night as they both are insomniacs.
So herein lies the film's motto "everyone wants to be found": Bob and Charlotte find each other, whether it be natural selection[ie Bob and Charlotte are Americans in a sea of Japanese citizens] or fate, because they need someone desperately to understand them, to listen. We find out that Charlotte, who's been married two years, is having doubts about her marriage and what she'd like to do with her life. Bob has been married 25 years but reveals that he doesn't feel like his wife needs him(for example his phone conversations with his wife lack any sort of emotion from his wife and she never once says 'I love you').
So Bob and Charlotte spend much of their time together, exploring the city, socializing with some of Charlotte's Japanese friends, going to a party, eating at restaurants, singing karaoke, and back at the hotel, talking.
In the short time that Bob and Charlotte get to know each other they grow closer but always with a certain distance between them; the relationship never gets sexual, although at one point, a couple of awkward half-on-the-lips-half-on-the-cheek kisses seem to point that they had at least considered a romantic relationship. In the end they never cross that boundary. I do feel that they genuinely respected each other and the fact that each other was married. But I also think that aside from each other's marriage, they loved each other on a different level; maybe not a romantic love in the conventional sense, but a deeper almost spiritual love. Their parting initially is quite sudden and there is no long goodbye between Bob and Charlotte. As Bob rides in the taxi, he spots Charlotte walking; Bob catches up with Charlotte and embraces her prolongingly, not in a romantic way but in a comforting, protective way; in my opinion telling her non-verbally that she had a profound effect on him, and vice versa I feel she felt the same way about him. They are better persons for having known each other and the uncertainties in life hopefully will not be as scary.
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