Lost in Translation

There's only so much we can do with words, and sophomore director Sofia Coppola understands this above all.

In her brilliantly and gently crafted "Lost in Translation" (2003), she entrusts only her character's eyes with the responsibility of communicating themselves to the audience: their complexity; their inner anguish; their utter confusion; their growing apathy. Coppola understands the maximum potential in minimalist storytelling. She understands how cheap, manipulated and abused some of us feel with cookie-cutter solutions and emotionally (and logically) inadequate endings. Most importantly though, Coppola understands that, more often than not, there is no solution to our problems, no plug for our gaping holes -- and thazt's ok.

"Does it get any easier?" asks Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson). "No." replies Bob (Bill Murrary). "Lost" is the movie that cuts you down to your emotional quick; locking you in deep with Charlotte and Bob from the very beginning and never letting you go. It exposes the cosmetic surface upon which so many of us are forced to operate and it introduces us to two people that sympathize with our feelings of emptiness and confusion. It's wonderful.