I had read the novella by Steve Martin and enjoyed it. This is a faithful and, I think, beautiful adaptation. Really gorgeous art direction and understated throughout, but for the rather emotional score–which works, too.
The real pleasure here, though, is seeing the wonderful actress Claire Danes get a part that she deserves. I’ve admired her from “My So-Called Life” and I think she’s had very few roles worthy of her talents since that series. In the middle of all the L.A. glitz, she’s beautiful in a way devoid of bulls**t. That would describe the movie, too. It’s sweet and sad and honest and I recommend it. In fact, about the only shortcoming is the narration by Steve Martin which doesn’t work at all and is mercifully brief.
And plus you get to see her unclad. I rather liked that.
(I also liked the movie. Funny enough, I just saw it a couple nights ago, and I thought, “I should bring this to Dale’s attention via C&F, because I remember that he liked ‘Lost in Translation’, too, and this movie’s sort of similar.”
In some ways, I liked this one better than “Lost in Translation”, which I started to really like while watching it but then ended with a “Eh. Huh…”
But Dale: I’m noticing a certain affection for movies that feature a wise-but-flawed older man in romantic or quasi-romantic relations with a beautiful and much younger woman. Hmm…)
Lost in Translation ended the only way it could…with Dr. Smith getting his butt whupped by the robot. No wait, that was Lost in Space.
Nevermind.
Actually, I really was going to say that L.I T ended the only way it could, until I got silly. The characters were being true to themselves. Anything else would have been ‘Hollywood.’
Oh, I didn’t mean the ending made me feel that way, I’m saying that I just ended up feeling that way. I thought it was a good movie, and the ending is surely true to the story and the film; I just didn’t think it was as tremendously good as a lot of other people did.
Here’s what I said about “LiT” long ago, on this forum. I’ll have to watch it again on DVD to see if my reaction is different:
Re: Lost in Translation. Eh. It was good, but . . .
To be more precise: I think the writing is very good. I think the performances – esp. the leads, Murray and Johannson – were good, esp. Murray, who nails the role. I don’t think that all those individually great parts added up to a great movie, though. A lot of the tension – and what’s a story without tension? – is rooted solely in whatever Murray’s reaction is about to be to a given circumstance. He does a great job of handling all that pressure, but it doesn’t make for a great movie. And the film’s palette is, well, not engaging, visually. Still, I think Ms. Coppola is turning into a good filmmaker; I liked this one, and also The Virgin Suicides.
I think I expect different things from film and theater, and maybe this would have been more fulfilling if I saw it on a stage.
What I did like: watching the leads’ friendship develop, and so honestly; and some fine writing. One of my favorite lines, in an “oof” kind of way:
Murray’s wife, on the phone from far away: “Do I have to be worried about you?”
Murray: “. . . only if you want to.”
Maybe it’ll grow on me, the longer I think on it . . .
No male human-critter would not have slept
with Scarlett J at the movie’s end. Never would have made
it out of that elevator.
‘But Dale: I’m noticing a certain affection for movies that feature a wise-but-flawed older man in romantic or quasi-romantic relations with a beautiful and much younger woman. Hmm…)’
kind of related to the conversation in this thread…
I watched the virgin suicides the other night and was wholly unimpressed. does that make me wrong? I liked Lost In Translation but after watching Suicides I was left with a massive feeling of “was that it?”. Seemed like a fairly bog standard coming of age drama to me. James Woods was good in it and Kirsten Dunst was her usual pretty self (better in the fantastic Eternal Sunshine and the Spidey films) but that was about it.
I didn’t like the Virgin Suicides either, I’m sorry to say. I had read and enjoyed the book.
It’s really interesting talking to people about movies here lately. I have kind of slipped into enjoying movies that a handful of people really love but which most people are pretty cold to.
By the way, I’m still waiting for SOMEONE on this board to comment on “The Station Agent” which I think is a masterpiece.
Your silly made my wife & I laugh outloud so thanks for that.
I think the L.I.T. moment in which Bill Murray whispers an unknown thing into Scarlett’s ear is about the most wonderful scene I’ve seen in a movie for years. Reaction to that scene is like a diagnostic test for people who insist on resolution of all ambiguity versus those who embrace it.
Hey, me too. And a more naked young girl you’ll never see, than in that one scene.
I really like “The Station Agent”. A quiet and wonderful film, with a number of just pitch-perfect performances. I saw it – and own it – because it was given to me as a gift by a friend, who wrote in the card that accompanied the DVD that I reminded her of the main character. I then unwrapped the DVD and saw that the movie was about a sort of lonely, hermit-ish dwarf with peculiar obsessions (movie descriptions on DVD/video cases suck about as much as book jacket descriptions often do). “Hey!”, I thought, “But I’m . . . uh . . . tall!”
And while we’re not talking about “Shopgirl”, anyone else see the TV series – available on to give him the money and crew to shoot a number of shows in which he goes on DVD – called “Fishing with John”?
Somehow, the saxophonist/actor John Lurie got a Japanese production company to give him the money to shoot a number of TV episodes in which he goes on weird fishing expeditions with strange famous friends of his. Shark fishing with Jim Jarmusch. Fishing from a rusted-out hulk with a seasick Tom Waits. In Search of the Giant Squid with Dennis Hopper. Ice fishing with Willem Dafoe (who, when it gets cold and they’re snuggled in their sleeping bags, asks John something like, “Hey, you want to cuddle? When it gets cold I get sort of sweet . . .”).
(Watching the shows with the director’s commentary is a hoot, too.)
Anyway, for some reason it strikes me that people who like films like “The Station Agent” or “Lost . . .” might find these episodes strangely fascinating, as I have.
