This movie was strange, and beautiful, and touching....
but there were some things that annoyed me. I thought the sexual tension between the main two characters was too close for comfort. I really thought they were going to "do it" at several stages, and that made me really uncomfortable.... to the point of squirming. Didn't want to see the old guy with the young chick, no matter how good friends they were.
I also didn't understand what was so bad about Charlotte's life. She annoyed me a little with her melancholy over nothing... a little spoiled brat-ish if you ask me, despite her fun personality. Her husband loved her, he *didn't* fuck the blond bimbo, she's getting a free holiday in Japan, doesn't appear to be short of money... bloody hell, pick up your bottom lip!
:D
Apart from these minor character annoyances I must agree the movie is executed brilliantly. As alasdairm said, it was more about what *wasn't* put in than what was - it avoided the obvious cliches (the cheating husband, the nicely-wrapped up ending) and over-emphasised some (the Japanese culture elements) - but with self-awareness and irony.
I wasn't entirely sure what the "message" was in this movie (I'd never read any reviews); but it left me with an overall feeling of having been enriched by it.
But then I am a fan of 'movies about nothing'... my boyfriend thought it was a load of horseshit
