Most film lovers with an interest in Hollywood ephemera are aware of the Chateau Marmont – the prestigious restaurant and hotel nestled into the heart of Sunset Boulevard, and which has seen countless figures from the world of entertainment pass through its hallowed halls over the years. However, one of its most recent occupants is Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff), a semi-famous actor who has recently split from his wife, almost concurrently to him taking up residence in the hotel for the sake of a press tour that requires him to consistently be on the move, attending various photo calls and press conferences, which erode his patience and cause him to sink even deeper into existential angst, which he attempts to remedy through near-anonymous relationships with women who are only interested in him for the fame. His one joy in life is his daughter Cleo (Elle Fanning), who is dropped off one day by her manic mother, who subsequently tells Johnny that she has to “go away for a while”, and that he needs to take care of her until she’s back. Over the next few days, Johnny takes his daughter on the tour with him, which stretches from the lobby of that hotel, to the Italian city of Milan, where he is receiving an award in recognition of his latest film, which is centred on Italian culture. In between these events, the father and daughter get to know each other even more, finding themselves realizing that they have a great deal in common. However, as strong as their bond seems to be on the surface, they both don’t really understand one another – Johnny has never been particularly present in the life of his daughter and simply isn’t the kind of person who makes for a good father, even though he tries effortlessly to be the parent she deserves. In turn, Cleo tries her best to connect with her father, but his meandering mind means that she is always at a distance from him, with all hopes of connection growing more unlikely the further she realizes that he is only going to be present when he comes to term with his own existence, which could take far too long.

It is quite clear why Sofia Coppola decided to make Somewhere, since there are many ideas here that would make for a magnificent film, and she has hardly ever made something that isn’t worth watching in some way. However, there’s something about this film that just doesn’t quite work, and it is quite possible that this is the first and only real misstep in the career of a filmmaker whose audacity has often been celebrated but did have the tendency to border on becoming too heavyhanded if the material wasn’t good enough. Somewhere is a strange film, but it is definitely understandable why it is the way it is – a satirical drama that couples subversive commentary on celebrity culture with a more grounded story of fatherhood (the autobiographical elements of which the director has been increasingly vague about), there was a lot of potential lurking beneath the surface in this film – so to actually see what it was that Coppola was doing with this story, and come out of it neither as invigorated or profoundly moved as one tends to be after experiencing one of her more acclaimed films is quite telling when looking at how Somewhere just may not work on a fundamental level. There are certainly some aspects of unimpeachable genius persistent throughout the film – one doesn’t come from one of Hollywood’s most creative artistic dynasties and not make something worth watching to some degree – and the merits occasionally tend to outweigh the flaws, but unfortunately, the shortcomings tend to scrape lower depths than the moments of brilliance hit the impossible heights, which eventually becomes a bit of a problem when we realize there isn’t going to be the big emotional crescendo we anticipate for nearly an hour – Somewhere ends with a whimper rather than a bang, but considering how dull the film around it actually is, this shouldn’t be all that surprising.

One of the most unsettling problems with Somewhere is that it isn’t quite sure of what it wants to be, or even what it is trying to say as a whole. Coppola is clear in what she’s attempting to do – she’s telling a story of a famous actor going through an existential crisis while dealing with two socially-imposed roles – world-renowned celebrity and father of a young daughter. The director employs some experimental methods to the proceedings, constructing something that feels remarkably different from more direct versions of similar stories. All of this is quite promising, so the relative blandness of Somewhere is quite bewildering, and makes one wonder whether there was an incredible film just out of reach, which could’ve been realized with a more direct and self-aware approach. Somewhere often seems like a maladroit riff on the French New Wave, with a complex protagonist traversing the boundaries between worlds as he undergoes an existential crisis – yet it doesn’t have the elegance, nor the insights, to be able to convincingly pull this off and make us believe in what we’re seeing. It also doesn’t help that the main role is played by Stephen Dorff, who is an actor who can do certain roles very well but tends to let his limitations define him in others, the main role in Somewhere being one of them. The rugged masculinity of the actor should hypothetically work well in the context of this film – but Dorff doesn’t have either the charm or the complexity required to play Johnny Marco all that well. Even at his most unkempt, dishevelled and scatterbrained, Dorff struggles with playing the character – he’s certainly not giving a bad performance, but rather one that feels less like a movie star undergoing a crisis of identity, and more of an ordinary man who has somehow become a famous actor. If this was the intention of the film (which is a fascinating concept on its own), it should’ve been made clearer, with the final product here being a film struggling with its own identity, much like its protagonist.

However, as has already been noted, this film does have some fantastic moments, which may be few and far between, but are very much present, particularly in the places that matter. Coppola may not consistently play by the rules, but she at least manages to do something interesting with this material, which manifests as the director commenting on her own experiences in an industry she was born directly into. The idea of Coppola making a film that is focused on both celebrity culture (particularly that in the film industry) and fatherhood, should immediately be an alluring concept – and to her credit, she does do well in investigating this side of the story. There is even a sojourn to Italy in the second act, which is where the film truly comes to life – absurd and surreal in both its theories and their execution, Somewhere works best when Coppola is surrendering to the strangeness of the story, which seems to be where it flourishes the most. This voyage to another culture serves the film tremendously well – its a funny and insightful glimpse into the world of celebrity, which is something the director is quite knowledgeable about, through her various familial and collegial associations, and shows Coppola holding a mirror onto the culture of worshipping those who have been given the preordained position as worldwide icons – this is most evident in Elle Fanning’s fantastic performance as Cleo, with her young and impressionable character being the exact outsider needed to portray this kind of story, but not distract from it. Fanning is legitimately wonderful, and she and Dorff bring out the best in each other, so it’s hardly surprising that Somewhere works the best when it focuses on this side of the story. It’s an interesting approach and makes me wonder what Coppola could’ve done with a more lucid story, rather than one that seems to be a series of disjointed moments of metaphysical meandering.

Somewhere is a film worth watching, but only for reasons of seeing Coppola’s attempt at a film industry satire – neither essential as a work of 2010s narrative filmmaking, nor a sufficient introductory text to the career of one of cinema’s most interesting voices, the film is just a passable achievement that gives some fascinating insights into a world the director is extremely familiar with, and not much else. I’d be hesitant to call this film a failure – it has far too many interesting moments to be entirely written off, and its premise is just compelling enough to overcome a more disconcerting approach that feels like it could’ve benefited from a less-dour approach. Understandably, Somewhere is the director once again working within the confines of understated, existential conversations, with the reality we’re presented with concealing a more bleak story of the human condition, which Coppola touches on very well. The problem comes in the fact that these moments are too scattered to have much cumulative power in this particular film – the director hasn’t been a stranger to more experimental methods, and it has often worked out extremely well for her, and even in the few fleeting moments of genius, she does at least manage to say something interesting with this film. Somewhere has a lot of potential, but it just feels somewhat lacklustre for most of the duration, falling just short of greatness and being a rather dull experience that may have some interesting ideas peppered throughout it, as well as some stunning scenes (both narratively and visually – the late Harris Savides was truly a master when it came to photographing offbeat films such as this), but not nearly enough to make up for a relatively uninspiring experience that did see Sofia Coppola try something different, but not to the immense success that she’s so deftly managed in the past.