"I also liked "Lost in Translation" very much, but I wish you would expand some on your perception of the theme of "love in the age of consumption" in it -- I don't quite understand what you mean by that."
I saw the consumption theme both in the setting of the movie and in the logic that governs the development of the romantic theme.
The movie is set in Tokyo, which is represented as a capitalist Disneyland or as an asian version of consumerism on steroids. Bill Murray is there to film a commercial and the Tokyo into which he awakens is like an infinite vending machine offering ersatz adventure (the video game halls), instant sex (the hooker that's sent to his room), instant nostalgia (the New York bar), instant fame (the karaoke scene), instant enlightenment (the tourist trip to the monastery), instant physical fitness (the treadmill room), and, if the main characters fall for it, instant cliche romantic encounter. Bill Murray's relationship to his wife is carried out by faxes regarding the furnishings of his study -- with which he cooperates not because he cares whether the carpet is burgundy or gray but because consumerism has become the lingua franca of their relationship, which he maintains for the sake of his children. Note also Scarlett's photographer husbands association with the dimwitted American starlet and her instant and meaningless fame.
Setting the characters in a foreign culture tends to highlight their sense of alienation and their refusal to or inability to play the game, because in Tokyo, the game appears to be even more impenetrable and nonsensical than it would in a domestic setting. The developing romance between the two characters would typically be consummated and served up by Hollywood as a means to transcend that alienation...as "love conquers all." Instead, the director suggests that their love is best served by an abstention and letting go, by a refusal to consummate and gratify. Thus in the end,they remain true to themselves and to the genuiness of their feeling for one another.
Both characters, Murray as a successful star, and Scarlett as a Yale grad are portrayed as people who do not identify with their "success" and who are suspicious of various offers-of-entry into a world without depth or sense. They are wise enough to realize that there's no there, there. Their romantic/human encounter briefly offers them a meaningful emotional and human space, and the only way in which they can protect that experience from dissolution is to keep it private and personal ... and to guard it from "consumption." Kind of like the refusal to pick a fragrant rose. The movie is made with a very light touch and the acting is superb.
I looked at a bunch of reviews...to make sure I remembered the movie correctly (having made such a muck of remembering "The Hustler,") and I was actually surprised that not a single reviewer had anything to say that went beyond the romantic plot.
Joanna