Rating: M
Running Time: 98 minutes
Release Date: 26 December 2010
Somewhere is Sofia Coppola’s fourth film as writer/director following her critically acclaimed Lost in Translation and The Virgin Suicides. Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff) is a bad boy Hollywood actor living the dream, all from the luxury of LA’s rich n famous hangout, Chateau Marmont . It’s a lifestyle of excess, fast cars and fast women. That is until he has to care for his eleven year old daughter Chloe (Elle Fanning) to whom he has very much been the absent father. He starts developing a relationship with Chloe and comes to the slow realisation that he is actually unfulfilled by the tedious trappings that comes with his celebrity.
This is the antithesis of TV series Entourage, exploring the emptiness, monotomy, the darker side rather than presenting the one dimensional, escapist glamour of the famous lives we covet. Johnny also has only one male sychophant in the form of Sammy (Chris Pontius) as opposed to Vinnie Chases three! However he still has a myriad of people waiting on his every whim from his masseuse to pole dancing twins. To Coppola’s credit the scenes of pole dancing will be indelibly etched in your mind for years to come, the same as Scarlett Johansson’s body in white cotton briefs in Lost in Translation. Sofia Coppola just seems to have that knack of painting such vivid, partially shocking, partially voyeuristic scenes particularly within the opening half of her films to hook you in.
Coppola aims to display a realistic portrayal of the life of a celebrity, from their press conferences, photo shoots, paid appearances and the authenticity is heightened with use of cameos by real life actors. However there was a striking lack of paparazzi even though Johnny was obsessed with courting them. Somewhat a clever statement on their love hate relationship and ultimately reliance on the “pap machine” to make it and survive. However that is about as clever as this movie gets. It’s as if Coppola is channelling Lost in Translation with similarities such as residing in an upmarket hotel, americans in foreign locations (Italy versus Japan), the relationship between an older man/younger woman and celebrity element. She obvious drew on her own experiences as a daughter to her famous film making father Francis Ford Coppola in writing this script. Unfortunately this film gets bogged down in drawn out scenes which serve to underline the mundaness of Johnny’s life however it just ends up losing the audience along the way. Though the chemistry and performances between Dorff and Fanning are great its not enough to elevate this film to a better level.
3/5 stars
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