The Essentials: Lost in Translation (2003)

"A lovely, quietly thrilling thing."

— Kimberley Jones, Austin Chronicle

"Simply put, Sofia Copolla's Lost in Translation is an amazing motion picture."

— James Berardinelli, ReelViews

"Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson give performances that will be talked about for years."

— Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

"One of the purest and simplest examples ever of a director falling in love with her star's gifts."

— Elvis Mitchell, New York Times

"This is one of the year's most subtly moving films, and a strong affirmation of Coppola's substantial talent. [2003]"

— Glenn Kenny, Premiere

"It's impossible to conceive of this ruefully funny entertainment without Bill Murray, who is nothing less than brilliant."

— Lou Lumenick, New York Post

"Isn't about a May-December romance or a brief encounter in a faraway place. It's about being alone in a crowd and the power of unexpected friendships."

— Sean Axmaker, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

"What's astonishing about Sofia Coppola's enthralling new movie is the precision, maturity, and originality with which the confident young writer-director communicates so clearly in a cinematic language all her own."

— Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly

"Giddily funny in a singularly American idiom, and shot, by Lance Acord, with an eagle eye for cultural absurdities, Ms. Coppola's film is also a meditation on love and longing, shot through with a sensibility that's all the more surprising for being so unfashionably tender."

— Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal

"Watch Murray's eyes in the climactic scene in the hotel lobby: while hardly moving, they express the collapsing of all hopes, the return to a sleepwalking status quo. You won't find a subtler, funnier or more poignant performance this year than this quietly astonishing turn. [2003]"

— Richard Corliss, Time

"With cinemas dominated by underwhelming blockbusters and formulaic rom-coms, it’s easy to become disillusioned with the state of the movies. Thank the almighty, then, for Lost In Translation, which in 102 wondrous minutes will restore your faith in the power of the medium."

— Rob Fraser, Empire

"Fraught with a deep sadness and sense of yearning. Yet, it is also an enormously -- at times, even uproariously -- comedic film, not because it feels any obligation to be "funny" in some contrived, screenwriterly sort of way, but because Coppola has set out to make a movie set to the rhythms of real (rather than reel) life."

— Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly

"Gorgeously shot by Lance Acord, who makes Toyko a gaudy dreamscape that's both seductive and frightening, Lost In Translation washes away memories of "Godfather III," establishing Coppola as a major filmmaker in her own right, and reconfirming Johansson and Murray as actors of startling depth and power."

— Nathan Rabin, The A.V. Club

"Sofia Coppola's second movie as a director is more than a breakthrough: it's an insouciant triumph. She conjures a terrifically funny, heartbreakingly sad and swooningly romantic movie from almost nowhere and just makes it look very easy - as well as very modern and very sexy. It is a funky little Brief Encounter for the new century."

— Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian