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Somewhere (2010)

Director: Sofia Coppola

Time Out rating

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44 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

Playing it more low key and less brash than in ‘Marie Antoinette’, Sofia Coppola is back in another rarefied world for her fourth feature and her first on home turf since ‘The Virgin Suicides’. This time she swaps Versailles for Sunset Boulevard and the French queen for Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff), a movie star living in limbo in a Hollywood hotel. Not any lodging house either, but the Chateau Marmont, a haven for upscale decadence where one is likely, as Johnny does, to bump into the likes of Benicio del Toro in the lift (a nod to Scarlett Johansson’s joke that she had a steamy encounter with him in one of the hotel’s elevators).

Johnny does little apart from feel like a spare part at his own parties, lie in bed watching strippers slide down poles as he recovers from a broken arm and occasionally obey orders to attend press conferences. The only constant in his life, beyond room service, is his 11-year-old daughter Cleo (Elle Fanning). Even then, this smiling, smart girl’s visits feel like an awkward duty. It’s only when Cleo’s mother leaves her with him for longer than usual that Johnny hangs out with her, takes her to Italy and enjoys the warmth of a father-daughter relationship, even if they’re not doing much more than playing tennis on Wii Sports and sharing ice cream.

The upscale hotel location, the character in limbo and on the cusp of recovery or reawakening and the tenderness between two unlikely characters are all familiar from ‘Lost in Translation’, and there’s a sense of treading old ground. At the same time, for all the familiarity, the difference is that this is a film about Hollywood, the place as well as the ideal, and there’s a hint of the sinister side of celebrity in the anonymous, nasty texts Johnny receives and his paranoia that he’s being followed by paparazzi wherever he goes.

That said, the film’s notes on fame are gentle and wry, never damning or deep, so questions from journalists don’t reach the satirical levels of ‘8 1/2’ or even the reality of ‘Don’t Look Back’. Some gags – of which there’s only a sprinkling – are surprisingly broad: Johnny goes to bed with someone and falls asleep between her legs; his masseur alarms him by preferring to work in the nude; crude Italian models swamp him at an awards ceremony.

Coppola is more comfortable with the quieter, more moody and dominant side of her film. She opens as Johnny drives a sports car round and round a track at length. Later, he motors across the country en route to a suggested personal epiphany, to which Coppola is too cool to get too close, meaning that the film fades out weakly. She prefers to look, not touch: standout scenes include Chloe skating around a rink as her father looks on and another in which Johnny has a mould made of his head, leaving us feeling claustrophobic and him strangely free as he sits in silence and encased. Coppola works with Gus Van Sant’s cinematographer Harris Savides and the link with Van Sant shows in a use of natural light, stillness and a search for the essential in quiet scenes.

For all the knowing Hollywood face of ‘Somewhere’, it’s the non-celebrity, Chloe, who is the film’s soul. Her age, moving from child to teens, means her interaction with her dad and other adults is oddly ambiguous and Coppola again shows how keen she is to show cosseted young girls and women struggling with their place in the world. The rapport between Dorff and Fanning is fun and tender, especially when she shoots him daggers when he brings a woman to breakfast in Italy, but while it’s Johnny’s life we see the most of, it’s Chloe’s which ends up being the most intriguing.

Author: Dave Calhoun

Time Out London Issue 2103: 8 – 14 December, 2010

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User reviews of this film

Bubba said...

Posted on Jan 20 2012 06:42 I just watched this film, it was probably the slowest most boring most meaningless movie I have ever seen. The ending was completly commenserate with the film ....dumb.

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Doogie said...

Posted on Oct 18 2011 14:15 Fantastic use of the camera by Coppola. Long, drawn out shots of a scene often using the more natural scenes as part of the film. I loved the first scene with the Ferrari going round FOUR TIMES! Takes guts! Well done Sofia. A successful nouvelle vague French type movie. Skate scene was excellent.

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michael said...

Posted on Jul 11 2011 17:07 It's CLEO not CHLOE. It changes half way through the review which is very annoying!

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MattZ said...

Posted on Jul 10 2011 13:31 Vaccuous as a Hoover vaccum cleaner without the bag. The only thing I enjoyed about it was the ice cream I bought before the screening.

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Jan said...

Posted on May 30 2011 06:08 What? You have got to be kidding me! That was one sucky movie. I cannot believe I waisted my time. It SUCKS!

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george said...

Posted on May 21 2011 21:30 worst movie i have seen in my life. don't watch it the people who say this is good are idiots themselves it consist of long scenes consisting of absolutely nothing except driving and sex don't waste your time. if i could i would give this zero stars so don't take my 1 as anything good. its horrible and there is nothing good about it. if you really want to know he realizes he screwed up his life but leaves it all behind my walking away. it was a rip off!! seriously i could have made a better movie!

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Dalmatian said...

Posted on Feb 22 2011 06:36 Fine in many ways. Not much of a problem there wasn't a plot. So many engaging aspects to the film, yet ultimately a bit mediocre. As mediocre as a black Ferrari can be. Two stars. Or maybe one and a half stars. Or maybe best one star. No, three stars for the cinematography. Or maybe half a star for this postmodern, existentialist, psychoanalytic self critique. No, wait, the film was a mirror of life. Five stars. Whose life? Hollywood's life. Art's life. Life. File. Tile. Style. Smile. Nile. Mile. Cinema must end up somewhere. Where civilization is. With its discontents.

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Bartleby said...

Posted on Feb 02 2011 17:40 Whoops, forgot to rate it.

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Bartleby said...

Posted on Feb 02 2011 17:38 Really liked this. Not much happens, but it beautifully captures the ennui of a sunny afternoon with nothing to do. LA is captivatingly photographed and the whole movie is charged with a powerful sense of place. Felt like I'd been in LA for a couple of hours when I left the cinema. Elle Fanning is wonderful and Stephen Dorff an amiable blank.
Loved it.

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Katyy said...

Posted on Jan 31 2011 18:27 The worst film I've seen in the past 10 years. Has no direction, no meaning whatsoever and leaves one feeling angry at a wasted evening. Boredom can be made entertaining, but here it only engenders more boredom and despair at the way the rich and famous squandert heir lives.

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Robert N. said...

Posted on Jan 29 2011 06:03 I absolutely loved this movie. A little patience at the beginning is rewarded with a very moving cinema experience. And it grows in your memory.

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Valerie M. said...

Posted on Jan 23 2011 04:10 Somewhere is the most boring movie I have ever seen.
A real waste of my time. YAWN.

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valdarno said...

Posted on Jan 17 2011 04:14 Please don't let Sophia Coppola direct any more movies. I'm not sure what is worse: the movies themselves or the convoluted movie reviews by otherwise respectable reviewers who try to hide that they are saying her movies are bad but then try to rewrite her movie in the movie review to tell us they are good, when they are not.

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Julie said...

Posted on Jan 13 2011 12:11 I'm a really big fan of Sofia Coppola.
I love her first three features, from Virgins to Antoinette.
But I'm not so sure about this film. I mean, it was good - the trailer probably gave away too much (probably should have been more done in the way Blue Valentine's trailer was done, as it hardly tells you anything) - but it feels like Sofia hasn't put in as much time & planning into this film as the others. The minimalism of the film affects the script - as it is quite bland in parts, for example, when Stephen Dorff is in the elevator listening to Benicio Del Toro talking about how he met Bono in the hotel. I feel the beauty of the Chateau Marmount was also not completely captured, I was expecting more...and there were also too much nudity (i.e. bare breasts) in the film. And that dude who played Guitar Hero with Elle was totally lame. Not even compelling - why was he cast..?! Too much facial hair.
Elle Fanning is brilliant - she was a stand-out - what a gem!
Sofia's experimental approach was good though - you have to tip your hats to her courage in making a film that is reminiscent of the long takes of the French New Wave era.
Looking forward to her going back to usual style, using Lance Acord as the DP.
Love you Sofia!!

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p maxwell said...

Posted on Jan 11 2011 02:39 a touching beautiful examination of relationship, not boring unless one lives in a cossetted world of emotional blankets, no life is simple, every life is simple! why do we need action and overblown sensationalism to make a film watchable

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