another from me.

I can't ad much here other than to say that I absolutely loved this movie. I actually wasn't much of a fan of Virgin Suicides, but this film is simply elegant. Every frame was part of the dance....Murray and Johannsen were phenomenal....and I laughed more than i have in a while at a film. A remarkable achievement.

Now, if only someone would translate the hospital scene for us!!

1. Fantastically beautiful film: the golf course shot is amazing, the Shibuya scenes are unbelievably evocative. Perfect cinematography.
2. Excellent understanding of the early and latter stages of marriage. I find it hard to believe that Sofia actually wrote this film, she probably got a lot of help. It's just too smart and knowing about kids, marriage and middle age.
3. Bill Murray turns in the best performance of his life. Period. I loved him in Rushmore, it's one of my favorite movies, but even I admit he's better in this one.
4. Scarlett J. is 19 friggen years old. That's insane. I was impressed by her in Ghost World, but she's better in this one. She can hold her own against Bill, that's impressive for anyone.
5. Excellent dialogue. Everything rings true, nothing seems tacked on or facile. This is how these real people would actually talk.
6. The soundtrack...wow. I didn't realize that Kevin Shields was still making music. The use of MBV's "Sometimes" is so friggen cool. This band and song mean a lot to me and have heavy associations to me with my past. I know it's cheesy, but hearing it in a theater in public was like hearing an old friend get nominated for a Nobel prize. Great stuff. And then Jesus and Mary Chain at the end...I bought Psychocandy in 1988, what a treat to hear that one as well.
7. Perfect ending, reminiscent of probably my favorite movie of all time: Chungking Express. The whisper is exactly right.

...if you can't tell, I loved this one. It's clearly my favorite movie I've seen this year. I'm amazed at how many people on IMDb outright hated it: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0335266/usercomments Just goes to show out of touch I am...

I had no idea people hated it this much. While I'm not knocking their tastes, I can't help but feel like they missed some of the most important parts of the film. The parts that made this more than just a "Old guy meets hot young piece of ass" flick.


Oh well... to each their own.

Wow, this movie was, for lack of a better word, amazing. The characters exuded true human emotion and the young lady I was with was crying before any of the sad parts even kicked in

Coppola avoids so many of the traps that films sometimes fall into when telling a love story, it makes it so real, it's just awesome.

I really hope Bill Murray gets the attention he deserves for this movie. Outstanding.

Geez. It hurts to read all these comments about how good the film looked. I picked the wrong theater & saw the worst print in extistence. There were several thin, black, vertical lines throughout the entire movie. The picture was too dark & it was sometimes hard to see what was going on, yet none of the blacks were truly black. They were more like brown. I think the projector may have been using a candle instead of a bulb. It looked like a 30 year old movie. Even with all that, I still really liked it. I kept wanting to go complain, but I didn't want to miss any (more) of the movie. I'll be happy to add this to my DVD collection & see what it was supposed to look like. It was a beautiful movie. Pretty much everything I could have hoped for - if I dared to do that kind of thing anymore.

I was in the same boat Lokimok. There were green lines all of over the screen and most of the scenes looked washed out. Very distracting. This is a film I think I'd rather watch on DVD rather than have to put up with the poor movie screens that are around this area.

Add another late post about how great the movie was. I have to say it was probably my favorite film of the year. Ive always been a huge Bill Murray fan, but he absolutely blew me away in this one. There were so many memerable scenes, I cannot wait for the DVD!

As far as how the film looked, it looked wonderful at the theater I saw it at. Im glad I took a trip across town to see it at a newer theater as the one by me is old and films tend to look quite bad there.

Finally had this come to my podunk corner of the world -- what a beautiful movie, easily one of the year's best. I've never seen a movie that captured so well the feeling of what it's like to be a tourist alone in a foreign country. Brilliant stuff, and if Murray doesn't get an Oscar nomination I'm burning Hollywood to the ground.

Murray damn well deserves to get an Oscar nomination for it, but I doubt he will. On a related note, I went out and ordered the limited edition copy of the soundtrack. It comes with a nice 48 page hard bound book that has a lot of neat stuff from the movie in it. I cant wait to get it and read more about the characters and such. I dont know what it was about this movie, but It just struck a cord in me.

I liked "Lost In Translation" as well. It was a very emotional movie in a weird way--I don't know how to explain it. Two people sharing a few days and connecting in a world they can't connect with really strikes a chord in me as well. For a moment in time, these two people are soulmates, and not in a sexual way. But, really connecting from the soul.

I'm not sure how many more times I can see this movie though. So, I'm not sure if I'll buy this on DVD.

Perhaps unfairly, I judge a movie on rewatchability as to whether it's great or not. And after seeing it, I"m struck by so much, but I"m wondering how much I missed, because it felt like such a whirl. For what it's worth, I think this is the most "rewatchable" film since Fight Club. Really special film, and I think some people go out of their way to bash Sofia Coppola because of her pedigree(married and a daughter of great directors) but if she'll get the blame for a stinker, she deserves the credit here. The movie is made so special because of her(she did write the damn thing).

And I don't see anyway that the Anna Faris character WASN'T

Can anyone add to the speculation as to who was who in the cast? I just saw this tonight, but I"ve read that:

Huh? Damn, wish we had a smilie symbolizing something going right over my head because I have no clue. I guess I can settle for

Maybe he thinks this movie was like "THE WATCHMEN" from DC comics? The characters being "types" of more well known characters. i.e. The Owl = Batman.....

Widely rumored specualtion, denied by all parties, is that the film is somewhat autobiographical about Sofia and husband Spike Jonze. They have been having marital issues, and presumably Sofia is the female lead in this film. . This was actually a big story on imdb.com a few weeks back

http://www.imdb.com/WN?20031028#3

Can't help but think people are reaching with the comparisons to real actors. Ok, I think I can see the Sophia/Spike Jonze connection obviously, but the others seem a reach.

In fact, when I searched for more information on this, I found an interview with Farris said that while she and Sophia did have some actresses in mind, neither one had ever thought of Diaz when they were preparing for the scene, so I kinda doubt it.

One of the funniest moments in the movie for me wasn't even something shown but an image I got in my head of Bill Murray in some great, action-packed car chase in some action movie. Man would I kill to see that. About the closest he's come to that that i can think of is in "The Man Who Knew Too Little."

I saw Murray speak after a screening and when he talked about American actors doing ads in Japan the name he kept giving as an example was Kevin Costner. So do what you will with that.