Somewhere Review

• 17th Jan 2011

Sofia Coppola has finally returned after many years of non-activity following the over-hyped and massively disappointing punk Marie Antoinette. This time she has gone back to the world of Lost In Translation as we get a glimpse into the life of another disillusioned, disconnected Hollywood actor in the shape of Stephen Dorff.

Dorff plays Johnny Marco, a Hollywood star of movies as terrible as those done by Murray in Lost and his life is one of hotel rooms, twin strippers (straight in from the Playboy mansion), hanging out with Jackass star Chris Pontius (basically being himself) and his daughter (played by another Fanning).

To make sure we truly understand Dorff’s life, the first thirty minutes of the film has virtually no actual storyline whatsoever apart from him mooching around from room to room saying very little, but still sleeping with a couple of women. The father-daughter relationship is slow to be revealed as we see him watching her ice-skating, playing guitar hero together as he slowly comes to realize the value she has for him in his life.

The problem the film suffers from is an extreme wanting to be deeply meaningful to the viewer without understanding that the majority of people will find little to nothing here to empathize with. The reason viewers loved Bill Murray in Lost in Translation is that he, at least, had a sense of humour about himself. Sadly this is not the case for Stephen Dorff’s character.

Coppola recently stated that she did not see a connection between the two films but it feels to me that Somewhere is simply the unwanted leftovers from the script sessions for Lost in Translation.  The utter lack of anything even remotely compelling simply makes the entire project seem at best, pointless and at worst, some Ingmar Bergman wannabe drama. Since the disastrous Interiors by Woody Allen in the 70s, American indie directors should really understand that aping Euro greats isn’t a blueprint for success.

Aled Jones