Lost in Translation
I finally saw “Lost in Translation.” I know I know, it came out forever ago. But Justin (a guy Paul works with) just gave us his copy from Netflix, so we finally watched it. I read on someone’s blog recently that they hated Translation as much as they hated American Beauty. (I can’t remember whose blog.) There were creepy parts to American Beauty to be sure, but I kind of liked the teenagers’ angsty-ness and that bit with how beautiful the plastic bag was. That rang true, I thought.
Anyway, I don’t think Translation is akin to American Beauty. It’s not nearly as fatalistic, or dark, or deeply broken. The relationship between Bob and Charlotte is really very beautiful and gives the characters a lot of solace and hope. Sure, it would have been more ideal if the kind of support and attention they were receiving from each other could have come from their perspective spouses. (Or would it? I’m not sure why I said that. Just habit I suppose. Because really, I think we set our spouses up for failure when we expect them to be “all things” to us. But clearly, Bob and Charlotte where struggling a bit in the spousal relations department.) But you know, things aren’t always perfect, and sometimes we are lost and need someone while we find our way. That Wayfinder sometimes comes in unexpected packages. At the core, that’s what Charlotte and Bob were to each other – not potential affair material, but unexpected packages.
As recovering evangelicals or even just as people in a post-Christian culture our list of “Approved” male/female relationships is pretty limited. Heck, in some parts of our culture a woman can’t even have the relationship of “teacher” to man, or a man the role of “mentor” to women. Is it any wonder that a relationship such as Bob and Charlotte’s had such difficult defining itself? That it drifted too easily towards “affair” when all it really wanted to be was “withmate”? Maybe it’s not the relationship itself that was scary for the Christian blogger I read, as much as the inability for it to go –culturally– to a healthy place. Actually, I think, in the end it found a pretty healthy place to land – given the limited number of places it could have gone, given the constricted means we have to express ourselves to one another.
Maybe as we recover mutuality between the genders, a new freedom will come to our relationships, and we can find names to honor a wider variety of friendships, unions, and partnerships. Maybe if we were not so ill, we would not push every variety into a mold it does not need to live in. Maybe Charlotte and Bob would not have to drift towards affair, but be able to recognize the simple gift of a connected soul. Maybe things could stop being twisted and damaged and could just be.
These are things I sleep about, as I sleep and drift to awake.
you thought american beauty was fatalistic?
how interesting… i saw it as full of faith and hope… the ache of it.
havent seen “translation” yet… i’ll have to pick it up.
ummm.. i could be wrong…i haven’t seen it in many years.
Rachelle, this is the best review I’ve read on that movie. Love your perspective!
“Withmate” - what a good word for a good thing. How sorely needed in our current church culture.
Keep on, you are being Jesus to many.
Dana
Your comments about the limited scope of men’s and women’s relationships is really on point. As we become more and more polarized about what we believe to be “appropriate” ways for men and women to relate to each other, I think that we only continue the cycle of brokenness and move farther away from true mutuality. Thanks for your thoughts Rachelle.
Peace,
Karen
Rachelle, Yes! This is exactly what I have been trying to tell everyone who will listen, or even debate with me, about Bob and Charlotte’s relationship–profound and surprising and unasked-for connection, not sloppy, greedy asking-for-troubleness. I am increasingly annoyed and frustrated and saddened by the limited number of “‘approved’ male/female relationships.” It is a sweet blessing to find and be found, one that I fear we miss far too often for the sake of an exaggerated sense of propriety.
(I enjoy reading the blog, by the way–makes me feel a pinch more connected and increases my longing for Seattle.)
I liked the movie. A rich, meaningful relationship between a man and woman - without sex. A few years ago I think I decided relationships like that just can’t exist in today’s society, without there being severe physical dysfunction in the reproductive area of one or both persons. (But even if that’s the case, it’s almost even more screwed up..)
I’m also glad that the writer didn’t take the easy way out, and just make Bob like her big brother. That would have been so disappointing. But instead, he was himself (old, middle aged, sorta falling apart), and she was true to herself, not a gold digger.
We need more movies like Lost in Translation. Tell all your movie-making friends.
thank you for this.
I loved Lost in Translation, and up until now I wasn’t sure why. Thanks for helping with that.
Rachelle loved the review. How right you are in how we need new ways of men and women relating to each other. I particularly liked Lost in Translation because Bob’s wives correspondence to him was totally lost in translation, as was Charlotte’s relationship to her husband. But the music also was totally lost in translation. Everything, including music, relationships, the making of the commercial, and the scenery all fit the exact same pattern. How easy it is for all of us to “miss the most important” thing that surrounds us because we are on the wrong wavelength. My favorite part: when Bob and Charlotte are in bed together, exhausted, in the middle of the night. He rubs his foot against hers.
dan,
that’s my fav scene too. i think it shows that bob and charlotte didn’t want or need that relationship to drift towards “affair.” it was good as it was.
r
I was brought here by amy’s blog and I am glad I came. You’ve deepened my love for this movie. Now I have to have it on DVD.
I was brought here via Amy as well. I really like how you have approached this film and the charater’s relationship. Me personally I am in love with love, whatever form it takes, be it convential or not. A little shaking of the “this is what I am used to” cage is good for us. In that vein, you could check out “Waking Life” and “Secretary” and “Wings of Desire”
(you may have already, I haven’t read thru your blog yet…)
respectfully, olivia
Your comments are very insightful. For my part, there is no comparison between American Beauty and Lost in Translation except on one basis: there was no point of caring for the characters in American Beauty–they were incredibly, pathologically self-absorbed; the gunshot at the end was a scripted easy way out for a narrative that had lost its way.
In Lost in Translation, I found we cared for the characters, and in what happened to them, the script did not take any shortcuts or easy outs. There was a breath of truth in this film, with its pain, its despair, and its joy.