Somewhere

Somewhere is one those films that I've been wanting to see since it came out in 2010 even though I am not much into dramas and this is nowhere close to the type of film that I usually like. The main reason why I wanted to see this is because the directer Sofia Coppola has made a lot of good films before this. Also after watching Super 8 last summer, I could tell that Elle Fanning is a really good actress and I see that her career is really starting to take off so I really looked forward to seeing her again in this one. Somewhere is one of those films that has a lot going for it and I see what they are trying to do with it by trying to make something different but the approach doesn't work for me and this is why I was not pleased with this film and in so many ways it could have been a lot better.

The movie is about John Marco (Stephen Dorff) who is a lonely Hollywood actor and has a broken relationship with his daughter. The entire movie is about them trying to repair their relationship and trying to bring themselves closer together. It is a typical drama with nothing new.

One flaw here is the lack of dialogue. As I mentioned before, I can appreciate that they are trying to do something different  but it doesn't really work here. In my opinion, a film like this needs dialogue to make it feel more realistic and without it, the viewer becomes disinterested and I for one got really bored because of this as it just did not seem very realistic. The film also struggles with pacing and it's direction. In the first hour, the film doesn't really go anywhere. Not much happens and scenes go on too long and with the ending, there are unanswered questions which I didn't care for.


There are some good things here though. The movie does have some original ideas and the two leads are very good. The leads are quite entertaining and their interaction feels somewhat realistic and they do have some chemistry. 

Sofia Collopa is trying to bring something new here which is a pretty cool thing, Unfortunately, Somewhere is  a pretty dry drama that barely makes the cut and a film that didn't really reach it's full potential.

3/5