Review of Somewhere (2010) by John E — 04 Mar 2011

I absolutely loved 'Lost in Translation', and anticipating the obvious similarities between it and 'Somewhere' - starring Stephen Dorff as Johnny Marco and Elle Fanning as his daughter Cleo - I had to see it.

As anticipated, these two films are very similar, which could have been fine, but unfortunately I felt that 'Somewhere' fell short. It followed the same storyline; a man bored with fame and trying to find meaning in his life, who develops a realtionship with a female character; 'Lost in Translation' focuses on the friendship formed between two strangers, while 'Somewhere' swaps that for a father's unexpected realtionship with his daughter.

This was one of the first problems I had with the film. I was expecting it to focus much more than it did on Johnny's relationship with Cleo, who ended up only featuring in about a third of the film. This might not have mattered as much if Johnny was an engaging enough character to sustain the remaining two thirds of film, but he wasn't. He was supposed to be at a loss with where he was in life, but I really didn't get the feeling that he had anything to be upset about, so therefore couldn't sympathize or align with his character.

Also, some of the shots in this film where much too long. The 'slowness' worked in 'Lost in Translation' to create a peaceful and relaxed tone throughout the film, but in 'Somewhere' it was very overdone and just made it boring at times.

That being said, I did enjoy Elle Fanning's performance and Stephen Dorff did well with what he had to work with.

Maybe I'm comparing 'Somewhere' to harshly with 'Lost in Translation', and if I had of viewed it as a standalone film, maybe I would have found it more enjoyable. But it just didn't live up to my expectations.