Movie Review - Somewhere

Somewhere (2010)

Starring Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning

Directed by Sofia Coppola

In the opening shot of Somewhere, director Sofia Coppola plants her camera at the edge of what seems to be an oval racetrack in a desert.  A car speeds into and out of the shot multiple times, racing around the track at great speeds, yet going nowhere at the same time.  I'm all for movies that have a slow, methodical pacing as long as it gets somewhere in the end.  [One of my top 20 films of 2010, Cairo Time, fits into that description.]  Sofia Coppola's Somewhere, however, much like that car that just continues to loop the track, doesn't go anywhere.

I fully get that the tone and pacing of the film is supposed to evoke the melancholic, depressed emptiness of Stephen Dorff's character Johnny Marco, a moderately successful actor living in L.A. who is seemingly going through a midlife crisis.  As he beds attractive woman after attractive woman, it's obvious that he's not satisfied in life, simply bored with his day-to-day routines [there's that racing around the track going nowhere metaphor for you].  When Johnny's ex-wife drops their daughter Cleo (Elle Fanning) off for an extended stay, Johnny's life begins to take on meaning...or at least I think he thinks it does.  He still finds himself sleeping with whatever hot woman knocks on his door, but I guess he realizes that there's more to life than that.  The epiphany Marco comes to at the film's end unfortunately comes off as slightly laughable as opposed to emotionally satisfying.

Oddly enough, it's not that Johnny's not a believable character.  There is more than a semblance of truth in the character of Johnny Marco.  There just isn't a good enough story surrounding the character in order to make me invested in the outcome.  Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning certainly try to reel me in and Dorff in particular is actually quite good, but they're just not given anything to work with.

In the end, Somewhere is too minimalist (and obvious despite attempts to be deep and meaningful) for its own good.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-