[This Romantic Comedies in the Time of Social Distance series suggests good rom-coms to watch at home during our current crisis. Some are directly apropos and some will take you away from it all, but none of them suck.]
In the "apropos" category, this beautifully directed dark comedy certainly resonates with our current moment. Studying aloneness, the movie glories in its moments of visceral isolation.
Largely remembered for its uproarious "Suntory time!" set piece, among other great gags, Lost in Translation is more a tone poem of melancholia than a raucous Bill Murray comedy. At heart, it's an elegiac meditation on the near-impossibility of sustaining romance; the Murray protagonist is in a marriage that's lost its spark, while the marriage of Scarlett Johansson's character is obviously over even as it's getting into gear. An air of mordant regret permeates the wryly funny-poignant encounters between the two leads, as they slip into a tacitly doomed not-quite love affair that's clearly never meant to be.
Yet the love that develops between them is palpable; the movie is a study of how affinity develops. In the case of these two, it has a lot to do with shared humor and wit. And as each struggles to make the best of their increased isolation, a slow but steady surge of hope guides them to a bittersweet, ambiguous, but kinda-sorta happy ending. Sounds good to me, right now. See if you agree.
The pace is slow, I should have gotten bored, but I didn’t… Bill Murray at his best, Scarlett Johannson so sensual, and Sofia Coppola at the peak of her art… LOST IN TRANSLATION is one of the most poetic and subtle rom-coms I have seen.
Posted by: Stephane Guero | April 30, 2020 at 03:07 AM