Lost in Transfiguration
Weekly Essay for May 4, 2004 by James E. Nelson
I've always wanted to like Bill Murray. The first movie I saw with him was Stripes. He has been in a number of less-than-memorable movies, but I also enjoyed Groundhog Day, Little Shop of Horrors, and Scrooged. It wasn't until I saw Lost in Translation this weekend that Bill Murray, the actor, finally began to come into focus. His role as Bob Harris in Lost in Translation was a completely different role than I've ever seen him in. I suppose it was because the role was so completely different that it finally occurred to me that Bill Murray almost always plays the same character. In other words, he's not really an actor; he's a comedian who plays himself in movies.
I suspect there are many folks who would disagree with me, and it's not an obvious insight because he has played so many different roles. Behind each of his personae is a cynical person who doesn't care–or it may be that he smoked a bit too much pot. Either way, he always comes off as slightly disconnected and confused. Even in a movie like Ghostbusters where he plays a brilliant, but goofy, scientist, he always appeared slightly overwhelmed in a scene, whether he was facing a ghost, a girl, or a computer.
I really liked Lost in Translation. It has a thoroughly European style–very little plot development but lots of atmosphere and character development. I suppose my favorite part was that while the two main characters (Bill Murray and Scarlett Johanson) were both struggling in their marriages and were thrown together in Tokyo for several days, they never found it necessary to sleep together, although the temptation was certainly there.
What made the movie work so well is that Bill Murray was completely believable in his role as Bob Harris. Even though Bob Harris was a successful and famous actor, it seemed that life had somehow passed him by. Bob Harris, from beginning to end, remained a dazed and confused sort of anti-hero, who, in spite of himself, rescued a young a confused newlywed.
And this brings me to Sophia Copola, the director of Lost in Translation. In order to create a great movie you don't necessarily need great actors, you simply need people who can play believable roles. That's precisely what happened with Bill Murray and Scarlett Johanson. The chemistry between the two lead characters was perfect. When the movie was done I think I hated Tokyo as much as those two characters did.
According to the participants, most great acts in history were not done by great people, simply by people who happened to be able to do the right thing in the right place at the right time. According to Protestants this is also true of most saints. In the medieval order of things saints were truly a cut above the rest of us, and as a result they have grace to spare. Protestants responded that all Christians are saints, those saints and martyrs that we remember are remembered, not because of these people's super-human abilities, but because God cast them in a particular role where what they did "naturally" was precisely the thing needed for a remarkable event. A remembrance of the acts of the saints doesn't tell us how great these people were; it tells us how great a director God is, and how marvelous his grace remains.
In that sense, Bill Murray is an archetype of a great Protestant saint: He's a relatively funny comedian, he's not a particularly good actor. It appears he's abused his body and brain by smoking too much pot. But he's been faithful to his craft (he's been in some 40 movies). And because of a bit of brilliant casting and directing by Sofia Copola, Bill Murray's character, Bob Harris, was fabulous.
Isn't grace great!
Copyright © 2004 James E. Nelson (Just Another Jim). All Rights Reserved.
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