Somewhere (2010– 97 mins) S. Dorf, E. Fanning

Ahh Sofia Coppola, how ye go out of your way to be mysterious and metaphorical, and sooo cutting edge of writing/directing. Yeah sorry I just don’t get it. Sure “Lost in Translation” is widely considered a masterpiece. And you want to keep some more Indie Cred. I get it, but it just ceases to be overly enjoyable. This is a REAL hard movie to pass complete judgement on. Mainly b/c if I was to explain it and talk about it, it might not sound so bad of a movie, but to sit through it makes me think of how LOONNNGGG and drawn out the movie is. And it’s only 97 mins! That’s not long at all!

Stephen Dorf plays Johnny Marco, a famous semi-washed up actor who juggles his job, partying and women, each on a whim and fancy. When his 11 year old daughter is left with him for a longer period of time then he is used to, it makes him take stock of his life. Like I said decent enough premise and should be good on film. However, Coppola takes a decent enough plot and has to throw in abstract movie making and drawn out shots to tell the story. With all the extra time she spends on still shots and drawn out scenes with no dialog, she could have thrown in a couple of more scenes with substance and rounded out the plot into something more enjoyable. It’s not the performances, as they were both good (Dorf and Fanning) for what they were given. Which is, probably 2 pages of dialog each. It’s that she tries too hard to be technical metaphor film guru. Sorry Sofia I just can’t get behind this film enough to recommend it to the general public.

Verdict–>A movie that should be shortish at 97 mins feels like a marathon 3 hour ordeal. With too much time spent not talking and trying to make metaphoric points. You quite literally could get up to get food,a beer and use the bathroom and not miss one single thing. Only the people who ALREADY think Coppola is a brilliant film-maker need to apply. All the others who like movies, and actually want to enjoy watching them pass this one up.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS