Somewhere, Sofia Coppola’s latest film, is not just an intensely character-driven film, but also a well-etched character study. A critic compared this film's theme with Darren Arnofsky’s The Wrestler, and I must say that I agree with it. The film is about a lonely, successful celebrity, who lives life king size. But, despite the gratuitous excesses that define his life, he also suffers from ennui and emptiness. Johny Marco, played with great care and precision by Stephen Dorff – a defining role for his career so to speak, is an extremely popular and filthy rich movie actor, who lives in a huge suite at a luxury hotel, and drives his Ferrari with abandon. But the stream of activities that define his meaningless, carefree existence, suddenly screeches to a halt when his 11-year old daughter Cleo comes to live with him, and though subtly, he suddenly starts finding his life to be better off. The film is a slow-paced examination of how this father-daughter relationship transforms him and he again starts realizing the small things that make life worth remembering and living. Okay, the film might not engage all its audience, and the director’s self-indulgence is also evident at times – some of the scenes, like the pole dancing scenes and the one where Cleo is practicing ballet skating, seemed overlong and could have been ended once the point was made. However, the film is also quietly melancholic and gently affecting, and has managed to go well beyond the conventions and boundaries of the plot.
Director: Sofia Coppola
Genre: Drama/Shwobiz Drama/Existential Drama/Slice of Life
Language: English
Country: US
