Somewhere
I’ve known Stephen Dorff’s name for most of my movie-loving life, and I know I’ve seen movies in which he’s been in, but I believe Sofia Coppola’s “Somewhere” is the first of his films I’ve seen where he’s been the star. It’s been said that she discussed this role with Leonardo DiCaprio, but that wouldn’t have been the right call for this role. The role of Johnny Marco should be played by an actor who’s familiar, but not famous, and Dorff fits that perfectly. That familiarity minus the fame is what makes his performance so compelling in this film.
Johnny is checked into the Chateau Marmont as he prepares to do press for his upcoming film, but he doesn’t seem all that excited. He has twins visit him to do a pole routine in his bedroom, but he seems completely indifferent to them. He gets into an accident, and spends much of the film in a cast. He attends parties, but they feel more like obligations than things he wants to go to. When we first see him spend a day with his daughter, Chloe (Elle Fanning), he seems to brighten up, and when he’s left keeping her until she goes off to camp (which means she must join him on a press tour in Italy, where his movie is opening), that indifference is really sharpened into focus.
It is said that you should write what you know. For Coppola, that typically means writing from a point of proximity to fame and privilege; after all, her father is Francis Ford Coppola. My first two experiences with her work- “Lost in Translation” and “The Bling Ring”- I recognized the craft and intelligence of her storytelling, but felt at a distance with the heart. As with my first time watch of “Virgin Suicides” early this year, “Somewhere” very much wears its heart on its sleeve. Coppola doesn’t ask us to care about Johnny, but we find ourselves doing so because he doesn’t feel like someone who is living a life of privilege; he looks like someone who’s had to work to get to where he is, expected his life to feel one way, and is realizing it very much does not. Having Chloe around only accentuates that realization. The chemistry between Dorff and Fanning is wonderful, and only deepens the longer they are around one another.
Coppola’s filmmaking style is very subtle, and focused on moments with the characters rather than a full narrative vision. That is something I realize now that I’m watching more of her work for the first time. In “Somewhere,” that approach is the correct one to take, and it brings us further into Johnny’s character than we expect, and empathize more than we might anticipate out of another movie with a similar subject. It’s not just Chloe’s influence- it’s the fact that Coppola probably understands what it’s like to be adrift in life, and knows that reflection is important in coming out on the other side changed. This film moved me.
