"Somewhere", Sofia Coppola's take on fame

Somewhere

Before I start the review: I love Sofia Coppola. She is responsible of my favourite movie, "Lost In Translation". I can't praise enough her talents: an incredible sensitivity for capturing human nature, an unbeatable ability to transmit feelings like fragility, loneliness and despair without making a drama, and unparalleled subtlety, and an amazing visual display, added to a great music taste. She's one of my favourite directors.

Having said that, "Somewhere" is a disappointment. Sofia's visual and sensitive touch is still present, and her take on Hollywood's fame is original and personal. But the film is, at times, barely death, and seriously cold. It is not about the quiet, lengthy scenes or the lack of dialogue. It's about the essence of the movie and its incapacity of connecting with the spectator.

If I compare with Sofia's previous trilogy there's evidently something missing here. I easily empathized with the Lisbon's sisters and the boys who idealised them. Needless to say, I truly fell in love with Bob Harris and Charlotte isolation, loneliness and expectations story, being compelled with a movie that was as visually precious and suggestive as powerfully human. Sofia's talent made me even felt moved by a queen's story, as behind all Versalles paraphernalia there was a trapped human being, a teenager willing to live. But in "Somewhere" there's nothing of that.

Johnny Marco (convincing Stephen Dorff) is a famous actor that lives the real "dreamed celebrity life" (sex, parties, adoration)... without really knowing if that what he wants. "Somewhere" is realistic in portraying the disconnection from the "real world" such a person might suffer, and I guess is also right in showing how he wanders in his meaningless life...but you don't really care. I mean, I cannot "buy" the sort of "celebrity despair" Marco's face, because I don't have any information telling me he didn't have the chance of doing something different, or that he is not free in changing his lifestyle if he feels that's what he wants. I'm very sorry to say that, in my opinion, "Somewhere" has a serious issue in what regards to storytelling, which is absolutely essential when you are showing an inner evolution of a "character in transition". 

There's no balance between scenes, and I couldn't say there's a real character study or human interaction except when Cleo (Marco's 11 years old daughter, brilliantly performed by Elle Fanning) and Dorff are on screen. Sofia Coppola, probably on purpose, constructs the film in a scene-after-scene accumulation basis. There are two moments (that won't spoil) where it seems a climax might be arriving, but the information or the emotion is lacking to go further. That leaves you wondering if you are not getting the point of the movie, once it abruptly ends, or there's nothing to understand about, and if there has been a real process on Dorff's character.

"Somewhere" is interesting (loved the inside cinema scenes), somewhat attractive, but ultimately frustrating and, sadly, a bit insipid.

SCORE: 5,75/10