Intermission: Bill Murray succeeds in rare serious role

Jim Wunderle owns Wunderle Sound Services and is a Springfield free-lance writer and musician.

As the year draws to a close, the serious Oscar contending films are finally coming our way. Sofia Coppolas brilliant Lost In Translation deserves nominations in every major category and should be awarded a special prize for being a film that, at long last, utilizes Bill Murray to his fullest potential. Its a high, as well as a turning, point in his career as an actor.

Coppola has proven that the talent she displayed directing The Virgin Suicides was no fluke.

Shes had a tough row to hoe, though. Being the daughter of world-class director Frances Ford Coppola brought her under suspicion of taking advantage of nepotism when audiences and critics alike noted that she was quite a bad actress in her dads entirely unnecessary Godfather Part III.

We all held little hope for her debut as a director with The Virgin Suicides, suspecting that daddy was merely pampering his little girl by helping her get a job as a director. That presumption proved to be entirely misguided and the film was executed to near perfection.

Coppola has done herself one better with Lost In Translation, having written the screenplay as well as directing the film. Its an entirely original take on a tale that could have been a hackneyed May/September romantic melodrama. The film never goes down that familiar road, but presents a situation that is filled with poignant melancholy while still managing to elicit a lot of laughs throughout.

Bill Murray plays Bob Harris, a big-time Hollywood actor who may be on the waning edge of his career. Hes in Tokyo, and being paid $2 million to star in a TV spot for Suntory whiskey. The scenes of the commercial production are hilarious. The director speaks no English, Bob speaks no Japanese and the translator tends to reduce what she tells Bob to very short statements. The director rattles on for minutes and the translator tells Bob to show, ...more emotion.

Also in Tokyo is Charlotte (played stunningly by Scarlett Johansson). Charlottes husband is a photographer on assignment to shoot some vacuous rock band. He leaves his wife alone most of the time and its easy to see, although never bluntly stated, that their young marriage is somewhat less than perfect.

Charlotte and Bob share the affliction of insomnia and begin bumping into each other at odd hours in the hotel bar. They become friends and confidantes and at about this time is where the film could have slipped into the older man/younger woman clichd romance.

It doesnt.

Bob and Charlotte have a lot more between them than what a casual affair could ever bring. They are both desperately lonely, unhappy people whose hearts have been wounded but they are resolved to keep on going. Neither of the characters display any bitterness. They both just seem somewhat wearily resigned to their respective fates. And they both really deserve more happiness.

Murray in the role of Bob Harris is captivating. Ive always liked his style but with a few exceptions havent really cared much about the material hes been offered. Critics hated Where the Buffalo Roam, but I thought he was hilarious as gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson. Most people found little to like about Murrays remake of the classic Somerset Maugham novel The Razors Edge, but I thought he showed great skill as a serious actor.

All of the doubts will be put to rest with Lost In Translation. Murray cannot be denied here and he would be entirely deserving of an Oscar for this performance. It took a bit longer, but Murray has broken free of his stereotype much like Adam Sandler did in Punch Drunk Love.

Johansson is wonderful as well. Shes just shy of 20 and has been in movies before (North, The Man Who Wasnt There), but this is her breakthrough role. She and Murray have a chemistry that fits perfectly into the mood of the movie.

Coppola makes a gutsy move at the climax of the film. Bob is going back home to America, and he and Charlotte see each other one last time. He leans and whispers something, and its not a short something like Good-bye, or I had fun... Its a long, obviously meaningful, statement. But Coppola doesnt let us hear what Bob is saying. Its hard to describe, but its really an ingeniously effective scene. We dont really need to know what he says, we can all just imagine what we might say in a similar situation.