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The movie starts with you and Bill Murray’s character, Bob Harris, slowly rolling down the sleepless streets of Tokyo, set to dreamy music that complements all the twinkling lights. And it seems like it is a dream, like he’s walking in awe and somewhat mechanically through a world completely foreign to him, a world where he doesn't understand language and mannerisms. His ethereal cab ride ends at the main setting of the movie, the hotel, wherein lies the more namely setting, the hotel bar.
We see Bob, a movie star in his 50’s who has to do a whiskey ad shoot for the duration of this film, going through the motions of life and doing his job. We see him going to an ad shoot in one of the most hilarious parts of the movie where he tries to look just right for the chic Japanese photographers. We see him drinking at the bar, we see him trying to get away from a bizarre hooker sent to his room by the ad company, and we see him drinking at the bar. In another room in the hotel is Charlotte (played by Scarlett Johansson ), a girl in her 20’s who is accompanying her photographer husband (Giovanni Ribisi). While her husband is away shooting a rock band, she walks around the more natural areas of Tokyo, she stops in to observe a temple and returns to the hotel where she later calls someone crying because she didn’t feel anything at the temple, then says she doesn’t know who she married, but this doesn’t communicate to the listener and the conversation soon ends.
After exchanging glances in the elevator and the bar, they finally meet in the bar and their expressionless faces come alive, we finally see them smile. During the next few days and nights they explore the Tokyo night life including going out for karaoke, where Charlotte sings the Pretenders line, “Gotta have some of your attention, give it to me.” One night during the week they discuss life, marriage, and children, then fall asleep.
In this movie we see two people lost not only in Japan due to lack of communication, but also in life. The point is that they each finally meet someone who speaks their language, and they get one week together. The movie is a metaphor for this, how rare and precious it is to find the person who understands you. Overall, it's an amazing movie, definitely the best I've seen all year, possibly one of the best I've ever seen, and I think it was some of the best acting these two have done, Bill Murray is funnier than ever--although it is not a comedy. If ever a movie was about real people, this is it, this movie has the most genuine characters you'll ever find. And writer and director Sofia Coppola really combined these great characters, images, and sounds perfectly to convey the theme and story of the film.
