Review: "SOMEWHERE"

Many a year ago, I entered college with the rose-tinted dreams of becoming the next big Hollywood visionary. Full of ideas (a few of them good, most of them atrociously bad), I hammered away at a major in Filmmaking, only to gradually realize that:

A. The industry is notoriously difficult to find success in
B. I would have to move to California or New York to just get my foot in the door
C. You can call it "paying your dues" all you want, but if I have to get my feet wet by starring as an extra in a Michael Bay movie, then you can go fuck yourself.

I eventually realized that my dreams were of the pipe variety, and even though I gave up on the filmmaking odyssey that I felt I was destined to dominate, I still have some ideas floating around in my noggin, and that I could find a happy medium by making a career reviewing films and sharing my quasi-elitist views with you, the loyal readers. Oh hai!

But what REALLY turned me off about a potential life as a Hollywood player was the inherent phoniness and ultimate emptiness of such a lifestyle. Sure, millions of dollars, coke-encrusted parties and a fleet of bleach-blonde groupies at one's disposal sounds nice and all, but is that all there is to it? Eventually, wouldn't one just feel bored with their existence? Wouldn't the blunt hammer of irony strike when you realize that despite all your career accomplishments, you still amount to nothing?

That's the premise of director Sofia Coppola's heavily minimalistic and almost insufferably introspective drama Somewhere, a seemingly insider's look at the startling boredom and lack of meaning accompanying the superficial glitz and glamor we spectators adore from afar.

Rising Hollywood actor Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff) has been recuperating from a small arm injury at the Hollywood Chateau Marmont, and if he isn't fulfilling publicity obligations for his newest film, he's either sleeping in his hotel room, hiring strippers to do private pole dances for him, having sex with random women, or hanging out with his childhood pal Sammy (Chris Pontius).

Clearly bored with his life and seemingly unable to experience pleasure, Johnny experiences a spark when visited by his 11-year-old daughter Cleo (Elle Fanning), whose custody is shared between him and his ex-wife Layla (Lala Sloatman). But when Layla calls and informs Johnny that she's going away "for a while", Cleo stays with Johnny at the Marmont. And it's this reconnection with his daughter that forces Johnny to reassess his life and what his life as a celebrity has done to him.

Now if you're thinking, "Hey! A Sofia Coppola movie about an actor facing an existential crisis? Didn't we already see that before, albeit much better and with Bill Murray?", then... yes, yes you're right. Like her superior and Oscar-winning 2003 sophomore outing Lost in Translation, Coppola's film examines the not-so-glamorous aura of celebrity and the themes of boredom, lack of happiness, and loneliness.

And, in a way, it works. Somewhere begins with a Ferrari driving in circles for what seems like eternity. But the camera is stationary, viewing the car from a distance, never switching angles. You'd think that speeding around in a Ferrari would be fucking exhilarating, but what Coppola is telling us is that only we, the outsider "non-celebrities", would think that. The entire film would seem like one big bore to most, what with many long scenes featuring mundane activity (Johnny getting movie make-up applied to his face, posing for publicity shots for his movie, the aforementioned Ferrari scene, etc.) projecting Johnny's boredom and emptiness onto the viewer.

It's all done in a very European filmmaking style, relaxed in its execution and content without throwing special effects, lens flares, and spastic editing in your face every ten milliseconds. I wouldn't be surprised if this film in particular would lull more impatient viewers to sleep, but any potential pretentiousness on the film's part is kept at bay by the fine performances.

Stephen Dorff (a terrific actor who deserves to be plucked from the straight-to-DVD hell he's been unfairly toiling in for the last decade, and hopefully this does the trick) does a superb job as the bad-boy-on-the-surface star with a sweet, understated, yet heartbreaking performance that makes Johnny's turmoil and inner conflict that much more palpable. Dorff wisely goes for the "less is more" acting route, and his body language and eyes do most of the talking for him. Even when his entire head is covered in plaster for a movie mask and he's just SITTING there for an unbearably claustrophobic five minutes, his ennui is our ennui.

Giving Johnny reason to appreciate his existence, however, is his loving and emotionally mature daughter Cleo, wonderfully portrayed by Elle Fanning. Unlike those other family dramas about daughters perpetually disappointed by their distant fathers, Fanning's Cleo seems to understand and maybe even tolerate her dad's behavior. But her warmth and dedication serves as a catalyst for Johnny's transformation, and the scenes between Fanning and Dorff are never cloying, sappy, or manipulative.

I'll have to admit that I got Coppola's point about the emptiness of celebrity life after probably twenty minutes in, and that the rest of the film was just being endlessly repetitive about said point. But as a minimalist, almost avant-garde experimental film, it's clockwork. The amount of humor sprinkled in was proportionately appropriate (especially a funny cameo by Benicio del Toro whose utter lack of "Hey! I'm a famous celebrity doing a cameo!" fanfare was the very source of that humor), and a small supporting role by uncharacteristically clothed "Jackass" star Chris Pontius adds a needed sense of energy and laidback camaraderie.

Like many independent Hollywood filmmakers, you either love Coppola's work or absolutely hate it. She's done a great job making a career distinctive and independent from her father, but if she's going to continue to make movies taking a critical/unconventional look at celebrity, she should try making said unconventionality more unique and engaging rather than resting on her apparent love for New Wave-style pretentiousness. That doesn't really take you Somewhere, but rather just brings you nowhere.

That was a really cheap pun. I'm better than that.

Letter Grade: "C"

Review: "THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU"

I've always been a fan of speculative history: trying to imagine how history would have progressed if infamous past events had a different outcome than what really happened; such speculation then leads to those addictive, thought-provoking "What if" questions. What if the South had won the Civil War? What if JFK hadn't been assassinated? What if Surf Ninjas became the box office champion that it should have been?

But then there are those "What ifs" that affect us individually. What if I got the other job instead of the one I have now? What if I missed out on my first date with my wife? And sometimes we even go so far as questioning the mundane, such as what would I have experienced if I took the 10:30 bus instead of the 10:45?

And then we question as to whether or not these musings are moot in the first place. After all, if something happened, then it happened, right? Do we really have a choice in deciding our fate, or does fate decide for us while we're not even looking?

It's this study of predestination and free will that permeates director George Nolfi's The Adjustment Bureau, an enjoyable, intelligent sci-fi drama that overcomes its ultimate inability to go even further with its premise by delivering solid performances and terrific chemistry between its lead actors.

It's fall 2006, and hotshot Democratic congressman David Norris (Matt Damon) is having a hot streak in his bid for the New York Senate seat. Unfortunately, a tabloid's revealing photo of Norris derails his efforts, and he loses. Preparing for his concession speech in a hotel bathroom, David happens to discover a woman (Emily Blunt) hiding from security after she crashed a wedding. Smitten with her and inspired by her encouragement to be more honest, David changes his planned concession and delivers an honest speech that revives his popularity and ensures a spot in the next election.

Joining his friend and campaign manager Charlie's (Michael Kelly) venture capital firm a month later, David makes a chance encounter with the woman from the hotel, Elise, on the bus. Getting her number, David exits the bus, only to arrive at the firm and find everyone inside frozen in place, being "scanned" by mysterious men in suits and fedoras. Captured, David is introduced to Richardson (John Slattery) and Harry (Anthony Mackie), who represent "The Adjustment Bureau".

According to Richardson, the Bureau is an omnipresent organization that has been controlling mankind's destiny since the beginning of time. Every single human has a predetermined "plan" (overseen by "case workers"), and regardless of what the human wants or desires, they're never allowed to diverge from that path. All of these paths are controlled by an unseen "Chairman", and though David is let go, he's warned that not only can he never see Elise again, but his mind will be "reset" if he tells anyone about the Bureau's existence.

Three years pass, with the 2010 election looming, and although David's followed their rules, he still can't get Elise out of his mind. Defying his so-called "path", David fights to be with Elise, forcing him to constantly elude not only Richardson, but eventually "upper management" member Thompson (Terence Stamp), who pulls out all the stops to quash David's rebelliousness.

Now when I saw the commercials and trailers for The Adjustment Bureau, I was somewhat perplexed about what genre this film fell under (Sci-fi? Romance? Drama? Thriller?), not to mention the fact that the whole "men-in-suits-controlling-Matt-Damon's-destiny" angle seemed a little too high-concept and even silly to me. I was pleasantly surprised, then, to find that not only did George Nolfi's directorial debut managed to handle a multi-genre workload, but that the allegories regarding religious predetermination and free will were executed rather nicely and provided welcome thematic material not usually present in chase-heavy thrillers.

Of course, such intelligence is commonplace for a film adaptation of a work by legendary sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick, whose other short stories and novels became the inspiration for films such as Blade Runner, Total Recall, and Minority Report. Updating the original 1953 short story by changing its protagonist from a real estate salesman to a young and white-hot politician, Bureau plays with various philosophical and societal issues and how despite there seems to be a facade of free will, underneath there's some sort of pseudo-Draconian planning involved (nicely emphasized early in the film when Damon's character points out that a seemingly honest and frank politician has his speeches and even clothing chosen by someone else).

Speaking of Damon, Mr. Will Hunting himself once again proves what a versatile and talented actor he is. It's actually not hard to picture Damon playing an Obama-esque political superstar, and his chemistry with the lovely Emily Blunt is absolutely perfect (once again, a rarity for a springtime thriller). Unlike the billions of run-of-the-mill action films released every year, the affection between David and Elise feels real, and we feel their pain when that pesky thing called fate continues to tear them apart.

As the fedora-clad case-workers hell-bent on keeping David on "track", Slattery and Mackie do an okay job, though it's tough to seem intimidating when you're dressed like a character from "Guys 'n Dolls". Things get a bit more tense when General Zod himself, Terence Stamp, comes in to handle matters, and the action sequences (including many foot chases) are crafted superbly, especially the inventive way Bureau agents flit from one vicinity to another.

If I found one major flaw with the film, it was that the filmmakers didn't take enough chances with the metaphysical themes that drive the movie. Yes, we know that it's a commentary on fate vs. choice, and that the case workers and the unseen "Chairman" represent angels and God, respectively, and though the material is addressed in a thoughtful and intelligent fashion, it feels as though Nolfi wanted to keep it safe and not offend viewers who advocate either side of this religious debate. It's unfortunate, because if Nolfi had dug deeper, The Adjustment Bureau could have been a masterpiece, rather than just the highly enjoyable film that it is.

Of course, there's nothing wrong whatsoever with being highly enjoyable, and as a sci-fi thriller, The Adjustment Bureau ranks high above the lazy/brainless/forgettable drivel we're usually pummeled with at the cinema. And if that's fate, then hey, I'm okay with that.

Letter Grade: "B+"