Review of Somewhere (2010) by Stephen L — 06 Jun 2011

I think too many people were expecting this to be as good as Lost in Translation, Coppola's previous outing which I am a huge fan of. What I feel this movie lacked was the sense of isolation, cold distance and detachment from the rest of the world.

You really feel like the characters of Lost in Translation are really lost in a world they don't understand and are there for reasons that don't concern them. In this movie a father and daughter reconnect over the course of a few weeks.

the problem is that their relationship doesn't change, their interactions are as plain and standard at the end as they are at the beginning. It doesn't feel like anything was accomplished and I can understand why many people would hate that about this movie.

Most people need a clear start point and conclusion but this movie is basically a series of "events" that don't lead to anything obvious. I wouldn't mind this about the movie if there was something about the movie that I was compelled by.

Lost in Translation took place in Tokyo, Japan and made great use of the urban soullessness and redundancy while still making it seem like it's a place I'd like to visit. The characters of Lost in Translation (I hate to compare this movie to Lost in Translation so much but it was the frame of reference in my mind) were complex, funny, charming and relatable.

The character of Johnny has a bit of an existential crisis at the end but it comes almost out of nowhere as his feelings are not very palpable, or maybe I just missed something which is always a possibility.

The characters of this movie are definitely relatable in that they do nothing exceptional. it feels like this is just a real life "nothing-special" true story and I have to be honest it'll take patience for some people to watch.