"Somewhere" review by Ben Kenber

“I used to think the worst thing in life was to end up all alone. It's not. The worst thing in life is ending up with people who make you feel all alone.”

-Robin Williams from “World’s Greatest Dad”

“Somewhere” opens with Stephen Dorff’s character of Johnny Marco driving his Ferrari around in circles in some far off place. It goes on for awhile to the point where some in the audience might say:

“ALRIGHT ENOUGH ALREADY!!!”

However, the length of the scene defines the state Johnny’s life is in. He’s a movie star with adoring fans, and getting women to sleep with him is easy as cake. But aside from being a successful actor, he looks like lost compared to everyone else around him. Johnny has no direction in life and emotion looks like a luxury that he really can’t afford. Even those beautiful female twins pole dancing in his hotel room at the Chateau Marmont can’t excite or arouse him, and they succeed in making him fall asleep more than anything else. We see him surrounded by so many people who profess to adore him, but all they do is make him feel more isolated from the world around him.

But then Johnny wakes up in the morning to find his 11-year old daughter Cleo signing the cast on his arm. From there, we see him come alive as he gets to spend time with the one person who loves him in a way no one else can. With his daughter, he gains some idea of adult responsibility, and a better sense of who he is and what he wants.

Now that may make “Somewhere” sound like a sitcom more than a movie; father gets closer to daughter and changes his perspective and all, but it is anything but that. This is Sofia Coppola’s first movie since “Marie Antoinette,” and she makes this one anything but sentimental and manipulative. Its more like she captures moments between Johnny and Cleo more than she films then, and it makes “Somewhere” feel all the more real.

Many have said that “Somewhere” feels like a European film in how slowly it moves, and it is never in a rush to get to the next moment. This is correct, but I like the fact that this it that takes its time. Today’s movies are always rushing from one moment to the next to where we never have enough time to digest everything we witnessed. That Sofia Coppola goes against this trend is very welcome, and it makes for a far more involving movie.

Seeing Cleo accompany her father to Italy for a movie premiere could have been clichéd and corny as hell, but seeing them together makes it feel intimate and far more original than any other filmmaker could have captured. Some will say that this is autobiographical, but I believe Sofia when she says that it isn’t. Granted, she definitely has an insider’s view of show business being the daughter of Oscar winning director Francis Ford Coppola and all, but this story feels removed from her own life. Her parents never divorced, and she appears to come from a very loving family. Cleo on the other hand is a child of divorce, and we know that she will suffer more from it that her parents will.

As played by Elle Fanning, Cleo comes across as far more adult that her father and it’s a kick to see her prepare breakfast for him, showing that she is more of an adult than Johnny Marco . She also makes what looks like a sumptuous Eggs Benedict, which anyone who knows me best is aware of that I order it whenever my parents are in town and take me out to breakfast. Of course, I’m on a diet now, so that may not be a good idea, but seeing her cook it so successfully makes me want to head out to the nearest restaurant that serves breakfast all day.

Elle has been in the shadow of her older sister Dakota who has given strong performances in movies like Steven Spielberg’s “War Of The Worlds” and “The Runaways.” I haven’t seen Elle in anything since “The Door In The Floor” where she acted opposite Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger, but she really comes into her own here with this character who is oh so charming. I’ve been saying this a lot about performances in other movies, but you never catch her acting here. She just inhabits her character with what seems like relative ease, and watching her come to life as Cleo is a joy.

Stephen Dorff is an interesting choice to play Johnny Marco. Best known for his roles in “Backbeat,” “Blade,” and “Cecil B. Demented” among other movies, Stephen does seem to have that “bad boy” image, though not necessarily to Charlie Sheen’s level. In “Somewhere,” he manages to find the right balance between being a nice guy and a thoughtless prick to where we empathize with him more than we decry his irresponsibly selfish ways. Like Elle, Stephen becomes his character more than plays him, and he keeps him from becoming a caricature of a movie star. We find ourselves wanting him to do right by his daughter even if he doesn’t always do so.

The other big character in “Somewhere” is the Chateau Marmont, a hotel on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. I have never actually visited it in my ten plus years living in Los Angeles, and this movie makes me want to check it out. It has a lot of history involving movie and rock stars, many of which have lived here for a time. John Belushi famously died of a drug overdoes at the hotel, and his death still haunts all those who were the closest to him. The history of the Chateau Marmont hangs over the head of Johnny Marco as we can’t help but wonder if the hotel will suck him up whole.

Granted, this film does share similarities to Sofia’s Oscar winning movie “Lost In Translation” in that it also involves a movie star who seems emotionally dried up and a young girl who is quickly maturing into a woman. But Bill Murray’s character looks lost because he is in a different country. Johnny Marco however looks lost in the country he was born in, so imagine how he feels when he travels overseas. His situation feels especially dire because there doesn’t seem to be a place anymore that he can truly call home.

Directors in general deal with similar themes throughout all their movies, and Sofia is no exception to that. At least with this one, she has a different way of exploring it than before.

If there is anything that bothered me about “Somewhere,” it’s that the conclusion is a little too open-ended. I left the theater with questions over what happened from there, and while change is coming for the characters, it’s not entirely clear what direction that change is going to take. Then again, there’s a lot going on that we don’t have all the details on. We never learn why Johnny split with Cleo’s mother, and we are only left with an idea of how it happened. Looking into Cleo’s eyes, she may have a better idea than anybody else of what went down.

Regardless of that, “Somewhere” is a well thought-out film that shows Sofia Coppola to be an excellent director who is confident of her abilities behind the camera. Looking back, I think it will have more of an effect long after you’ve seen it as it’s not the kind of movie that leaves your consciousness all that quickly.

***½ out of ****