Somewhere

          For those of you who haven't been reading my recent posts, I have recently declared Sofia Coppola my favorite female director. Her full resumé of features contains The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette, this review's Somewhere, and next month's The Bling Ring. I have watched the four available ones in order, finishing seeing her collection of works last night with Somewhere; I was mightily disappointed. It is about an actor who lives a monotonous life at the famed Chateau Marmont luxury hotel on Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood. Then he must take care of his daughter (played by Elle Fanning) when her mom decides to take a break. He has to try to leave behind the meaningless sex and nonstop booze to be a good father. The acting was adequate but not memorable. I expected more from Fanning.
          As for the filmmaking side, it was a bit of a mess. The camera always lingered way too long, often for not the slightest reasons. One time, when I believe it was lingering to display an actor's loneliness while getting extreme makeup done, Sofia had already gotten her point across, and yet the camera stayed awkwardly for an extra minute or two. The cinematography was boring. The plot was lifeless. I did not see much development in the father's character. I think the purpose was to show that his life had been going nowhere, until his daughter's extended part in his life gave meaning to it, allowing him the comfort of knowing that he is going somewhere, even though he does not know what her part in his life will be in the future. However, the end is very artificial, seemingly shot only for the title's sake, lacking a realistic occurrence. He was obviously meant to be the dynamic character, but little changes (such as his emotional phone call toward the end) were sudden rather than culminated.  Also, there were a few scenes in particular that were evidently put in the movie to give it a light touch of humor, but it really did not work. The massage scene was probably as funny as it got, which was not that funny, partly due to the fact that it was completely irrelevant to the poorly-developing story.
          This movie was incredibly disappointing since Sofia's previous three movies were thought-provoking and fun to watch. Hopefully The Bling Ring will redeem herself, although the minor disaster of Somewhere and Sofia's indie status will probably keep the movie to a limited-release. Feel encouraged to tell us fellow movie-lovers what you think of Somewhere and Sofia's other movies!