Directed by Sofia Coppola
(R)
***
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Sofia Coppola’s latest exploration of celebrity ennui is a “quiet heartbreaker,” said Justin Chang in Variety. A subtle, eloquent portrait of a bored, burned-out actor, it ruefully exposes the emptiness of his existence at Hollywood’s Chateau Marmont by putting him in the regular company of his adoring but “clear-eyed” 11-year-old daughter. It can be hard to understand, though, why Coppola wanted to spend so much time on this dissolute character, said Wesley Morris in The Boston Globe. Played by Stephen Dorff, who’s “never been the most exciting actor” himself, the story’s pampered star is less tragic than “dull.” What a “flat movie” for Coppola to make after 2006’s “vibrant” Marie Antoinette. But just because this film is quiet doesn’t mean it’s hollow, said A.O. Scott in The New York Times. Told in languid, nearly wordless takes, Somewhere makes great use of child actor Elle Fanning, who “can do more with eyes than performers many times her age.” Far from being a lazy film, it’s “formally audacious,” generating both a “wry and knowing comedy about the show-business life” and an “affecting” story about a father’s loneliness.
