Movie Review
Message lost in translation
by Brian Abrams, Reporter

   It's the film we're supposed to love.
   It's the film that "we get." It's the film that we feel so proud of ourselves because "we understand it."
   Well, let me be the first to tell you. That's all poppycock.
   Sofia Coppola's second film, Lost in Translation, will get plenty of hype this year, through hearsay and through the press.
   But not here. No.
   I'll classify Lost in Translation with a few other more popular films that didn't hit the mark: A Beautiful Mind, Amelie and last year's backflip Adaptation.
   These films constantly jab at the viewer for laughs, cries, intellectual stimulants.
  They make the viewer think they are smart but are just placating senses the whole ride.
   And Coppola's work joins this frat because, yes, it's one of those films that is telling people to love it.
   In LIT, golden-aged actor Bob Harris (Bill Murray) has his life flashing before his eyes during a trip to Tokyo, where he is shooting a whiskey commercial for $2 million.
   Amidst his loneliness and wonder, he meets Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson), a Yale undergrad unsatisfied with her current relationship.
   So, it's supposed to be this really understated film, the kind that opens the floodgates to the genius deadpan comedy of Robert Altman, the Coen Brothers and the late, great Terry Southern.
   And Coppola (all due respect for her previous work, The Virgin Suicides) creates a heart-warming context for this wry humor to be accepted by the masses.
   And this context is vehicled by our all-American SNL lounge singer, whom everyone can relate to.
   Innovative landscape as it may sound, there's one thing wrong.
   It's not funny.
   But props go out to Johansson for her performance as the bemused, 20-something intellect.
   Coppola can direct women powerfully. With Johansson's performance under her belt and Kirsten Dunst's work in Virgin Suicides, the auteur has some potential ahead of her.
   She's the new female edition of Cameron Crowe. Coppola combines lovably confused and complex characters, young and old, with a killer soundtrack that plays just as big a role in the film as the lead.
   As far as Murray goes, he'll get his Oscar nod.
   At least that's the buzz going on right now.
   But he partially slept through the role.
   Look-Murray was originally recognized as first-rate talent (outside comedy) 10 years ago in Groundhog Day.
   Yes, it was a simple goofball movie, but the writing was on the wall.
   Murray is a complicated person and a very talented actor.
   I take nothing away from those facts, but just because "he's in a serious role now," we don't have to bow down, flying auto pilot and just assume that it's a top-notch deal here.
   As the floodgates to this Art Film for Idiots is opened by Carl the Groundskeeper, as Dr. Peter Venkman walks down the aisles at the Academy Awards, as the critics rave over his performance as Bob Harris, try and remember just how much we can sometimes fool ourselves.