Lost On 'Lost In Translation'

What is it with movie critics?

'Round about this time of year, every year, ahead of The Oscars, critics around the world seem to suffer from a kind of universal insanity. They become fixated on one movie and like the lemmings we are, we troop off to discover what it is that they see in it.

With one or two noble exceptions, everyone seems to have raved about "Lost In Translation", the story of a movie actor on the slide, who takes a job, making a whisky commercial in Tokyo. Bill's in his fifties, Charlotte's in her twenties… so here we go on the merry go round of unrequited love. Only, hang on, what's the problem? A young woman with an idiot of a husband admittedly, but lots of friends in one of the most exciting cities in the world? What's she so depressed about? And that's only the half of it…. along the way, we get the kind of movie that is churned out in film schools around the world every semester, only salvaged by the wonderful Bill Murray.

But there's something darker about "Lost In Translation..." its attitude to the Japanese and to their culture…. something that if this film had been about Mexico, Italy, or even any African country, would have had the protesters outside every multiplex in the land.

OK, so I didn't like Lost In Translation and who cares what I think? But it gives me a chance to point out that you have missed an American jewel in the young actress who plays Charlotte. She's a New Yorker by the name of Scarlett Joanssen and she's just won a British award, a BAFTA, as best actress. And she's not even been nominated for an Oscar. But if you want to see what the lady can really do, take a look at "The Girl With The Pearl Earring" a movie about the painter Vermeer and his model. It's a lovely movie, without a hint of racism ... and, best of all, it's British.
By Simon Bates