Normally, the typical American male is excited about the prospect of seeing a concise movie focusing on celebrity and all the accoutrements that come with it: expensive sports cars, a bevy of beautiful women and an overall glamorous lifestyle. Writer/director Sofia Coppola’s (“The Virgin Suicides,” “Lost in Translation,” “Marie Antoinette”) latest film, “Somewhere,” is not for those viewers, nor will it be relatable with just about anyone else, save for pampered egocentric celebrities.
Coppola aims to empathize with the plight of lonely movie stars by deglamorizing the everyday life of one such Hollywood luminary, Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff).
To that end, Coppola does an excellent job of examining how Johnny’s Ferrari driving, constant bedding of women and jet setting with sycophants can be repetitive and banal.
The whole film takes on a representation of Johnny’s structure-less existence exemplified with Coppola’s static composition, cinematographer Harris Savides’ desaturated color palette and the majority of the cast’s listless acting. Unfortunately, the question remains: should a filmmaker risk boring its audience at the expense of proving a point? “Somewhere” proves the answer to that question in an emphatic “no.”
From a positive perspective, the movie effectively captures a dreary vision of imprisonment within the trappings of celebrity (though whether an audience wants to see that is debatable).
In addition, whenever Johnny’s eleven-year-old daughter, Cleo (Elle Fanning) joins him on his ventures, the film (and occasionally Johnny) comes to life. Coppola shows that walking-automaton Johnny only “wakes up” when making a true human connection, as with Cleo. Fanning has a natural effortlessness to her acting and provides the only moments of hope and escape in the movie.
Identifying with a spoiled, egotistical celebrity is a tough feat to accomplish, though not necessarily a worthwhile undertaking.
In her past three films, Coppola achieved a level of viewer compassion towards outwardly unlikeable characters by revealing their relatable attributes. With “Somewhere,” Coppola may have stepped too far past the human capacity sympathize with celebrities…quite a surprise since she was previously able to create empathy for the beheaded former queen of France. C-
Ari Silber is a Loyola MBA student. Before graduate school, he worked for nine years in the Los Angeles film industry, focusing on marketing publicity and distribution. He can be reached at [email protected]
