Bill Murray plays Bob Harris, an ageing film star on a promotional trip to Nippon. We join him as he struggles with jet lag, cultural differences and language barriers. Basically when he is at a very low ebb indeed. Bob is in a foreign country on his own, feeling lonely and blue. Things don’t look good for Bob. Then in waltzes the rather vivacious Charlotte (Scarlet Johansson). Just out of college, she has arrived in Japan with her photographer husband, as he has a photo shoot to do with one of Hollywood’s new starlets. It becomes clear both Charlotte and Bob are in the same place, not just geographically, but emotionally as well. Both are suffering the impact of being in a place they don’t understand, of being jet-lagged and of being in relationships with people that they can no longer connect with and feel don’t understand them. From the first meeting of Bob and Charlotte it is obvious that they can fill in the pieces that are missing from each others lives and even from their souls. Bob has been where Charlotte is, and Charlotte still has the youth and innocence that has been sucked out of Bob. When they meet the connection is instant. The two have a natural, easy chemistry on screen. There is nothing lascivious about their relationship. This is not your standard Hollywood recipe for a relationship.

1. Take two people of opposite sexes.

2. Throw in a couple of cheesy romantic lines.

3. Season with a heartfelt but shallow monologue.

4. Fill with graphic sex scenes.

5. Sprinkle with a break-up/inevitable reconciliation

6. Bake in middle of oven for 45 mins at gas mark 5.

Nope, Lost in Translation is much more than that. From the way the two look at each other, the way they interact, make each other laugh. This is where you get the very real feeling that these characters are meant for each other. That they truly do feel for each other. Yet it is all done so deftly, so subtly, it makes you yearn for this kind of depth from all films. You wonder how any relationship in a block buster is going to convince you ever again. This film is a master class in human emotion, and how to project those feelings through film. Really if you were not moved in some way by this film then I strongly suggest that you stop watching American Teen Movies and Rom-Coms for a year. Go out, interact with people, watch weird, crap French films then once your brain has been reset to “Human” mode instead of “Ape like Moron” mode, come back, watch Lost in Translation again and if you still don’t like it, you’re a weird emotionless freak and you should perhaps look into a career in something like a professional hitman. Some people seem to have had a problem with the age difference between the two actors. Pish I say. It’s not the kind of film where a young actress has been cast because that’s what Hollywood does. Her youth is an irrelevance. The connection and the magic in this film lie in the emotional connection, not in the physical attraction. If you are too shallow to see past this, then perhaps you really shouldn’t watch grown-up’s films. Can I perhaps interest you in a Disney?

I don’t want to talk about what actually happens scene by scene as I feel that would distil the enjoyment for those who have not yet watched. Suffice to say that if you are willing to invest some time and attention to a totally different American movie experience, and are mature enough to realise that love is not bound by such vacuous notions as appearance, age etc, then spend some time in a weird and wonderful Japan with Bill and Scarlet. You won’t be disappointed.  Oh and don’t dare ask what the last line of the film is. Just use your freaking imagination.