The director of "Eat Drink Man Woman" (1994), "Sense and Sensibility" (1995) and "The Ice Storm" (1997) has delivered a moving - even heartbreaking- tale of love that cannot be fulfilled. The performances are uniformly solid, with particularly worthy turns by Ledger and Gyllenhaal.
Awaste of film, time ,talent, and money. Nothing happens in this movie; absolutely, nothing. An offence to the Japanese people and boring. I actually fell asleep in this one. Don't waste your time or money!
Hound had the fur pulled over his eyes by this one: it's all hackneyed posing. There are interminable brooding shots of Johansson staring out the hotel window, Murray looking out the taxi window, but nothing ever HAPPENS. Both actors do their best, but the director hasn't a gram of wisdom or insight she can bring to the film. (And some of her stereotypes of the Japanese are downright offensive.) The conclusion is trite and hardly worth wading through the turgid waters to witness. Coppola is trading on her name, but her cinema is flat as a board and just as wooden.