Whenever I watch a movie I plan to write about, I always bring a pad of paper and a pen for general note-taking purposes. On average, I’ll jot down two to three pages worth, maybe add a few last notes on the fourth, but never in my fledgling career as a movie columnist have I taken as many notes as I did with “Somewhere.”
Which is strange, because in its entirety, the film featured no more than 20 minutes of dialogue, at most.
To say “Somewhere” is a slow-paced movie would be an understatement. Although its writer and director (Hollywood film royalty, Sofia Coppola) has a knack for fashioning scenes of elongated silence and mutual indifference between her characters, “Somewhere,” her fourth endeavor, doesn’t resort to becoming a duplicate of its predecessors.
Stephen Dorff plays Johnny Marco, an A-List actor who is so famous, the cost of shacking up in the notorious Chateau Marmont for months on end is chump change. From parties to strippers, Marco does it all, but it’s routine now and falling asleep during his trysts is the new norm. That is, until his 11-year-old daughter Cleo, played by the ethereal Elle Fanning, pops into his life.
It’s obvious from the get go Marco has no clue how to raise children; he’s a child himself. He’ll duel Cleo in Guitar Hero for hours, but when it comes to conversing, he’s dumbstruck. It doesn’t matter that he has the money. If he’s jet setting from hotel to hotel, catching helicopter rides to Vegas or hiding from paparazzi, Marco’s got a pretty big thing missing from his life: honest human interaction.
His loneliness is illustrated by Coppola’s artfully crafted and prolonged shots of utter nothingness: Marco showering, Marco sitting, Marco driving his Ferrari to and from press junkets aimlessly. At instances, the silence is almost unbearable, but I’m sure Marco feels the same way.
In a way, Cleo mothers him, her own mother being absent from the picture, leaving both father and daughter in dire need of a role reversal. But alas, they keep getting their wires crossed.
Regardless of numerous scenes sans conversation, Dorff and Fanning manage to impressively convey the frustratingly complicated process of developing a parent-child relationship. Dorff doesn’t even have lines to speak and he emotes his desolation impeccably. Fanning acts with the poise many 20-year-old starlets have yet to learn, and she maintains the grace and sincerity of a seasoned professional. Not once do you ever doubt the authenticity of their relationship; it might be flawed and unconventional, but it’s honest nonetheless.
If you can appreciate Coppola’s testimonial to lengthy scenes of everyday occurrences, then “Somewhere” is an achievement in embodying pure, unadulterated life. Having seen this film in St. Louis, I can only hope it will be released here soon. And if you’re willing to give it a try, the only thing left to do is immerse yourself in the monotony of Marco’s reality and let this film take you somewhere.
