Movies Reviews

Somewhere – Movie Review 2

By Ron Wilkinson Dec 23, 2010, 20:52 GMT

Somewhere won the Golden Lion Award for Best Picture at the 2010 Venice International Film Festival. From Academy Award-winning writer/director Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation, The Virgin Suicides, Marie Antoinette), Somewhere is a witty, moving, and empathetic look into the orbit of actor Johnny Marco (played by Stephen Dorff). You have probably seen him in the tabloids; Johnny is living at the legendary Chateau Marmont hotel in Hollywood. He has a ...more

Much needed social commentary hamstrung by minimalism taken to the point of boredom.

After her earthshaking “Lost In Translation” perhaps Sofia Coppola had nowhere to go. So she created a semi-remake of the film, another visual essay of the failure of humankind to live up to expectations. As in “lost” language is a key factor in our failure to communicate.

The protagonist, spoiled and isolated film star Johnny Marco, never gets a chance to say anything of any significance. The world is pushing him towards a never-ending line of blithering nonsense.

Or, is that a little much? “Somewhere ” has the same look and feel as “Lost in Translation” except that it is not new, or different, and it substitutes Stephen Dorff for Bill Murray.

Dorff did fine playing opposite Johnny Depp in “Public Enemies” as Homer Van Meter, gunman and right hand man for John Dillinger. But that is very different from carrying the ball in this minimalist adventure. There is nothing but Johnny Marco in the film, and the message he conveys does not fill up an acceptable fraction of this movie’s 98 minute run time.

In fact, nothing in the film seems to fill up the 98-minute run time. The story starts with a drunken Marco falling and breaking his arm and a seemingly unending sequence of annoying Ferrari exhaust noises. The fact that there is no dialog for the first 20 minutes helps the audience to understand that film maker’s point of view that information is as much a waste of time as it is anything else.

However, at some point an actual screenplay must begin. As time goes on, the slow start does not get any better.

Johnny’s lifestyle seems to be working for him, as he floats around in his Ferrari filled world, until his daughter enters the scene. Her real communication shatters his world of numb make-believe and he is born again. Born again touching.

Coppola made a mistake in choosing this particular subject matter for her screenplay. The subject of children opening doors for adults has been addressed too many times before. There is little left to say unless it is said in a very different voice. The message of this film is not conveyed in a different voice.

It is a sad story of a spoiled American trying to find value in a worthless life. We hear about it and we see it every day. It is not entertaining without some kind of spark. There is no spark in this film.

Some will like “Somewhere” for its amiable ramble to self-consciousness, although it will be a too slow for most. The director needs to move out of this genre, the “modern communications is no damn good theme” is wearing thin and she is not developing it further than she did in “Lost.”

Bill Murray is a great actor and was perfectly suited for the dazed and confused Everyman. Dorff does not have nearly the charisma or the heft.

The location moves from Los Angeles to Milan after a suitable suite of jibes and insults is showered onto the City of Angels. Not that it does not deserve it. In Milan Johnny is out of the pot and into the fire. The cinematography is a good time, a travelogue of lush views coupled with a lifestyle that is an easy target for our condemnation.

The guest performances by the erotic dancing twins Kristina and Karissa Shannon will be enjoyable to about half of the audience. We are smug watching this and that is not a good thing. In LA, the Chateau Marmont steals the show, and that is not a good thing, either. The film is not supposed to be about the place but there is a creeping feeling that the filmmaker is hiding behind the famous location.

Many in the audience will be thinking “Where did John Belushi die?” instead of “Wow, Johnny Marcos is like all of us---he is completely disconnected from human interaction.”

The challenge would have been to take away the Chateau and the Ferrari and, in that blank environment, paint Johnny as a disconnected person living in an invisible cell of money and fame who is brought back into contact by his daughter. After all, this is the situation we are in…

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Directed and Written by: Sofia Coppola
Starring: Stephen Dorff, Elle Fanning and Chris Pontius
Release Date: December 22, 2010
MPAA: Rated R for sexual content, nudity and language
Runtime: 98 minutes
Country: USA
Language: English/Italian
Color: Color