Somewhere

★★★

Sofia Coppola’s latest meditative offering lies somewhere between the loneliness of Lost in Translation, the disassociation with stardom of Marie Antoinette and the directors own life as the daughter of a famous film maker. It’s well trodden territory on the surface, the bored cry of a privileged upbringing and the down falls fame can bring. But why the seemingly barefaced treading of water?

We follow Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorf, painfully and brilliantly cast) as an actor seemingly at a career high and a life low. We watch in lingering, laborious takes his down time in all of it’s ridiculous boredom as he finishes a staring role in a film, hires pole dancers for his bedroom and just as we feel as disconnected and indifferent to all of the vices that come with being famous as our lead, we are introduced to his daughter, the 11 year old Cleo (a wonderfully natural performance from Elle Fanning). Cue subtle life changing moments, pondering sparse pop songs and a cameo from a U2 loving  Benico Del Toro.

Somewhere is pondering, repetitive, almost strolling in pace and at times beautiful but it’s themes are handled with a deeper sense of melancholy than Lost in Translation, often at the detriment to the drama (or lack there of) in the film. In parts it is so slow that it It would be almost too easy to dismiss the it as nothing but a pretentious serious of shots of Stephen Doff sitting down in various places looking sad. But I’m not going to do that.

Though not outstanding or sharp in script or immediate character Somewhere simply feels nice to watch. Coppola has already sighted Fellini’s hilarious Toby Dammit as a major influence and with Terrence Stamp’s vile characterization in mind it feels like she could have perhaps pushed Johnny Marco’s character a little further to have his resolution ring more loud and true.

However, what Somewhere lacks in humour and drama it certainly makes up for with sheer mood. So, with her ticks, traits and career themes firmly in place let’s hope Coppola has said all she needs to say about about bored rich folks and moves on from Somewhere to somewhere else a little more green.