Age difference wrecked it for me.
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Lost in Translation
getmeout — 9 years ago(June 11, 2016 08:24 PM)
I get that that was the plot point with this movie, but come on now. He was apx 51 and she's apx 17 in 2002 while filming. It's just creepy to me even if it was just a close friendship or not. They kiss at the end, so it was more than platonic. They were in love but knew the age difference made it impossibleooh how artsy. Build a time machine then get a room.
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TxMike — 9 years ago(June 12, 2016 09:16 AM)
Your comment
might
have some merit if this sort of thing
never
happens, but quite the opposite, it happens all the time in real life. The actual age difference is immaterial if they are both adults. Even if Scarlett was 17, more likely 18, during filming it is the character's age that is important. Being married and traveling with her husband the character Charlotte was more likely in her early 20s.
I am older, I have traveled a lot on business, some international, like Bob here does, staying in a strange place and by chance meeting someone you have an instant compatibility with. The movie works because it is so realistic, too bad you are unable to see that.
.... TxMike ....
Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes not. -
ex250 — 9 years ago(June 28, 2016 03:29 PM)
Can I give you another scenario?
What if the movie is really about a man who has a near death experience and meets his wife Lydia as she was two years into their twenty-five year marriage except that he is nothing more than a famous movie star to her. In this near death experience, Bob learns how unhappy and lonely his career has made her to the point that his wife has had enough and is ready to divorce him if he doesn't retire from his lucrative acting career.
Bob doesn't want to retire because he still loves making an incredible amount of money to be pampered in five-star hotels and doted on by press agents and company executives who will send beautiful young prostitutes to his room for free. Dire Straits said it best, "Money for nothing and your chicks for free."
To Bob's chagrin he discovers that everything in his near death experience has been reversed. There are a few positives: his wife now respects his career and has virtually unlimited time to spend with him while he relives his younger days partying with her because there are no children yet to occupy her time.
However, Bob finds that the reversal of his situation has surprising consequences in his work. His wife may be in her early twenties again but the cute young prostitute has been turned into a middle-aged woman. The commercial director doesn't respect or appreciate him and yells at him disapprovingly. The press agents ask him to do things that he doesn't want to do. The photographer asks him to be somebody else and insults him. And his wife is married to someone else so he can't be with her anymore. In short, Bob's marriage and his career have switched places.
During the events of Bob's near-death experience he comes to see how miserable his wife was before she became a mother and how being a mother has fulfilled her, except that she's desperately lonely and is prepared to divorce him. Bob must make a choice: retire from his career and devote himself to his family or lose them forever.
Promise me, no matter how hopeless things get, keep on trying, OK? Keep coming chin-up, OK? -
cbfan41 — 9 years ago(August 22, 2016 04:15 PM)
While I agree death might be too strong of a word, the OP was very misinformed. The main characters were never "in love". They grew to love each other by the end but they never felt romantic feelings towards each other except maybe Bob lusting after Charlotte (he is a guy after all!). Plus Charlotte clearly wasn't seventeen despite what Scarlett's age during filming. She was a recent college graduate making her around 22-23 years old.
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cbfan41 — 9 years ago(August 23, 2016 12:19 PM)
Oh there is no doubt Bob was attracted to Charlotte, who wouldn't it be? But there is a universe difference between having a attraction to someone and trying to act on them. Plus I think Bob as time went on saw her as really a little sister then even a daughter.
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Jennie_Portrait — 9 years ago(August 28, 2016 07:37 PM)
Agree. Bob felt loving and protective towards Charlotte. I love the scene where he carries her in his arms to her hotel room. He tucks her in and says good night. It's kind, loving and completely non-sexual.
This film is enormously touching. One of the reasons I like it so much is that their relationship remains unconsumated. To me this is realistic and adult.
Never say never
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Storywatcher — 9 years ago(October 11, 2016 12:10 PM)
If you had understood the real relationship between them you wouldn't confuse love with sexual attraction. If what you said were true I would assume you thought "Leon, the professional" was about a pedophile hitman _.
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getmeout — 9 years ago(October 11, 2016 05:23 PM)
No, I don't confuse love with sexual attraction. I don't think that about Leon in The Professional either. They are two totally different types of relationships. Lost in translation seems like some creepy old man's fantasy. IMO
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olicoates — 9 years ago(October 13, 2016 12:35 AM)
I think you missed a lot of subtext and symbolism here Getmeout which possibly meant you ddint quite get what sophia was showing - but again that's my opinion. it could be argued that the gratuitous "butt shot" at the beginning skewed the viewer into making Scarlet an object of desire and distorting how we then watched her interact with Murray .or did sophia do that for precisely that reason ???
thats what makes this a brilliant film .sorry if you didnt get it.
"and i'm all out of gum."