A friend once told me that his most memorable, most powerful relationships were ones that had lasted a very short time. He wasn’t talking about one-night stands, or necessarily about relationships that involved sex at all. Sometimes, two people with seemingly little in common can connect under the unlikeliest of circumstances and find a bond that can last a lifetime, even if their relationship lasts but a small fraction of that time. This is something writer-director Sofia Coppola, daughter of filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, explores in her splendid new film, Lost in Translation.

Bill Murray plays Bob Harris, a past-his-prime American movie star who’s in Japan making "an easy $2 million" for a whiskey commercial. He seems to have it all, but he’s bored, lonely, and desperately wants to go home. Home, though, means his family, in particular his wife of 25 years, who seems more concerned with picking out new shelves and carpets than noticing that her husband has lost interest in almost everything. Bob isn’t exactly facing a midlife crisis, but he’s lost his way.

Bob finds solace in Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson), a young and pretty university graduate who, with her photographer husband, is staying at the same hotel. Charlotte has been married for only two years, but already she’s begun to feel desperate and alone -- and even more so when her husband leaves for a few days to photograph some rock stars he’s been assigned to. As in real life, Bob and Charlotte’s relationship happens as a result of time, place, and circumstance all colliding in this Tokyo hotel.

In any conventional Hollywood film, what happens next would be easy to predict. Bob and Charlotte would have an affair, there would be long and gratuitous love scenes, and at the end, both would leave their spouses and live happily ever after. A theme of their "destiny" would run through the film, and it wouldn’t matter that Bob is more than twice Charlotte’s age, or that both would be cheating on their spouses -- somehow, all would be justified to make it seem right. But as in her previous film, The Virgin Suicides, Coppola doesn’t follow predictable storylines. What happens between Bob and Charlotte is far from conventional, and that’s what makes Lost in Translation so special. In the end, it’s as quirky and memorable for the viewer as their relationship is for Bob and Charlotte.

Being the daughter of such a famous filmmaker has undoubtedly given Coppola keys to Hollywood doors that are not opened to everyone; however, she hasn’t abused the privilege, and even with such advantages, her film career had a rocky start. IMDB.com credits her with 13 acting roles, but for the most part her career as an actress has tanked. Where’s she’s found her niche is as a writer and director -- she knows how to tell a story on film. 1999’s The Virgin Suicides, which she adapted from a Jeffrey Eugenides novel and also directed, was a knockout -- every bit as quirky and original as Lost in Translation, which is one of the best movies of 2003. It proves that Sofia Coppola is no one-hit wonder, and makes her one of the hottest prospects in filmmaking today.

• Go Back