'Lost In Translation' (PG-13) (Out of four popcorns)

Sofia Coppola, the actress, may not be a good idea, but Sofia Coppola, the director, has turned out to be a very good idea, indeed.

Coppola, the daughter of Francis Ford Coppola, is also married to a director -- Spike Jonze ("Being John Malkovich") -- so she has had the good fortune to observe the best directors in action. She absorbed a lot of skill while watching, and it is very evident in her latest directing project, "Lost In Translation."

Coppola's first film of note was "The Virgin Suicides," a film on a small scale with a disturbing story. In Coppola's hands, it never turned maudlin and featured some terrific performances.

Now, Coppola has taken on a much bigger-scale film -- but at the core it is still a character-driven story focusing on two lost souls who make a profound connection with each other, despite their age difference.

Bill Murray plays Bob Harris, a well-known movie actor who is in Tokyo to shoot a commercial for whiskey. He'd rather be doing a play, but he was offered beaucoup bucks, so he finds himself alone in a foreign land trying to understand the direction of a director who doesn't speak English.

Scarlett Johansson is Charlotte, a young wife whose husband is distracted and consumed with his job as a photographer, so she ends up alone most of the time, looking for something to do. She isn't looking for company, but late one night when she and Bob both end up on adjoining bar stools, unable to sleep, she makes a comfortable connection with this man who seems as adrift as she is.

There is hardly a scent of the Bill Murray we are used to in this performance. He doesn't even take the bait of reprising his bad lounge singer from "Saturday Night Live" when the barroom crooners belt out their tired repertoire of blues songs and Cole Porter. But Bob fits Bill like a glove. It should, since Coppola wrote the role specifically for him. Murray can say more with a simple tilt of the head and a blank expression than most actors can do with an entire monologue.

Johansson may not be as flashy as many young actresses, but with each role, her immense talent becomes more evident.

Both characters may be lonely and a bit lost as to their role in life, but they are not at all pathetic. Murray and Johansson have an effortless chemistry as lost souls who find completion and understanding in a stranger.

Coppola has created a remarkable friendship that is not sexual or romantic, but warm, caring, understanding and simpatico. These two people just fit, and help each other find the essence of themselves that they thought they had lost. But this is not a downer of a movie; the easy humor is infectious.

I loved Coppola's view of the pulsating energy that is Tokyo. This is no Zen garden -- it is modern, hip and full of blinding neon, living side-by-side with the genteel traditions Japanese people have grown up with. We take a few forays into the countryside and see some gorgeous and peaceful shrines, but for the most part, Coppola introduces us to a Tokyo rarely shown in movies.

"Lost In Translation" doesn't need a translator to get laughs or get to the heart of what is human in all of us -- the vital need to find a connection with other people. It is a rare and special movie that entertains, while giving us a story most of us can relate to. I can't wait to see Sofia Coppola's next film.