Loving Love Part 1 of 2: Lost in Translation

Loving Love: Part 1 of 3 (originally published in The Humboldt Advocate in January, 2005)

This is part one of a three part series leading up to Valentine's Day.
That time of year is upon us. The time of year that makes us slightly more irritable and slightly more sensitive than we'd like. We look around and find ourselves a bit more disappointed with the significant other we have or frustrated with the significant other we wish we had. Ladies and gentleman, it's love time. Valentine's Day is coming and I've decided to jump start my pacemaker and believe in love this year. I figure, what the hell? I don't have anything else to do.
Let me ask you a question. Do you believe in love? Really. Do you believe in the kind of love we see in movies or read in novels? The kind that makes violins swell and forces the sun to set as the wind caresses our sculpted hair? Many of us have been or are in relationships that mean quite a bit to us, but aren't quite at "movie love" level. Does that mean it's fake? Is it only in the movies for a reason? Just for shits and giggles, I'm going to say that this sort of poetic love is real. I'm going to say that there is a kind of love that baffles logic and science. I'm going to tell you that there is a match out there for you. A soul mate. What makes me say these things? Movies. Not your average Hollywood saccharin Jennifer Lopez movies. I'm talking about art. Movies that are at their core about absolutely nothing more than Love. That's right. Capital "L". In the last five years there has been an influx of amazingly well made movies that are about this very cliched subject. It is a wave of films that sit closer to "Harold and Maude" than to "Titanic" and I think for Valentine's we should all watch them and believe in love for at least a couple of hours.
This week's love nugget:


Lost in Translation



This movie got nominated for four Academy Awards, came from a Coppola and stars Bill Murray. Those are some good credentials. The film features a different type of love story. There are no passionate lovemaking scenes and really only hints at what type of attraction the two main characters have for each other. It is at once simple and complex. It asks very basic, but difficult to answer questions. What attracts us to others? What is attraction?
The ending is always crucial to any movie and love stories are no exception. This movie has an ending that reaches inside your bitter soul and gives you The Feelings while maintaining a dignified and respectful level of class.
The movie's love line is drawn between Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson, but never really crosses into what we normally require of movies about love। The obligatory bedroom scene between the two main characters in this one is so well crafted it makes me want to punch someone in the face. Hardly any physical contact, yet we feel a connection... in the scene, I mean. The face punch would feature a lot of physical contact. These two characters are in opposite places in their lives, but are experiencing the same doubts and emptiness. They find each other and float through strange world as if guided by something beyond their capacity to understand. And that ending! Damn, it's a good one.


So there we have it। Review number one in the countdown to Valentine's Day। Join me in my attempt to treat Valentine's right this year। Remember how much more you loved Christmas when you believed in Santa Claus? Love is the Santa Claus of Valentine's and I think it would do us all some good to try a bit harder to believe in it.