Somewhere (2010)

Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning in "Somewhere"

“Somewhere” begins with an extended take showing one of those speedy, flamboyant sports cars whizzing back and forth across a dusty, empty open road, interminably revving up its expensive, high-powered engine for no particular reason. That the image seems to suggest moving in circles is quite fitting—the driver in this case, a jaded but reasonably successful actor named Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff) has been going nowhere fast these days.

The movie, written and directed by Sofia Coppola, is a kind of meditative character study about the tedious flipside of celebrity. Johnny lives comfortably and has plenty of money for nice toys, but the glamour of show business doesn’t excite him anymore and its artifice has left him disillusioned. At parties, he drifts off alone to smoke; while during the day, he’s settled into a routine of plopping on the couch, checking text messages and waiting for the phone to ring—not even regular visits from a pair of sexy young pole dancers is enough to shake him from his malaise.

Help arrives in the form of Johnny’s daughter, Cleo (Elle Fanning, adorable and very sharp), an ebullient 11-year-old with a bright, infectious smile. A lively, loving ball of natural energy and curiosity, she ends up being the perfect antidote to Johnny’s ennui, neatly zapping the actor out of his torpor with a fresh combination of innocence, enthusiasm and genuine affection.

Cleo is on hand for a short visit before going away to camp, a loan from mom whom we only hear over the phone and never meet. With the parent’s cryptic and tenuous association, Coppola hints at another gloomier, decidedly unglamorous facet of Hollywood—that of the long-distance, fractured, sometimes hostile relationship. Of course, in this otherwise messy situation, Cleo—almost with a halo floating over her angelic, blonde hair—emerges as a life-affirming, life-altering gem.

As father and daughter reconnect, “Somewhere” becomes an earnest, understated tale of pieces of a family coming together. If the film has a handicap, it’s that Coppola has explored much of this territory before in the brilliant “Lost in Translation,” with Bill Murray shining as an older, lonelier version of the aloof, disillusioned actor who rediscovers some joy after an unexpected friendship blossoms with Scarlett Johansson. That movie was both a celebration of human conversation and companionship and a visually masterful love letter to Tokyo, Japan.

By comparison, “Somewhere” isn’t nearly as dreamy. Coppola’s camera doesn’t set out to make sweeping visual statements, but perfectly captures ordinary moments. There’s something special about the way the director photographs the repetitious din of Los Angeles traffic in the afternoon. Like the desert road from the beginning, it’s just a daily slog up and down the same old boulevards, a little bit of something and nothing at the same time.