The dialogue of “Lost in Translation” never sizzles, never gets out of line, doesn’t really reveal the protagonists’ interior landscapes. It seems like most of the scenes are about the two of them sitting there, telling each other about how much they want to sleep. Bob and Charlotte spend an awful lot of time not saying very much. Even in one of the most crucial scenes when they swap life stories, the sentences trail off and then they’re . . . sleeping.
All this is very much in the Japanese cinematic tradition — and in this sense, “Lost in Translation” feels Japanese. It’s never about what a man and a woman say to each other, but the space they manage to create for themselves. (Kaori Shoji)
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