Somewhere (9/10)

Depression is a strange thing. It comes in several shapes and forms and our lead suffers from one that doesn't seem to foreign the audience. He is stuck with no direction. He has no thrills anymore, no joy, no hate and majority of emotions. He's not dead inside, but he's not to sure of that himself. "Somewhere" won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival (think best picture at one of the big 7 film festival). It truly is a work of art.

I say art because that's the best way to describe it. Think of a painting, some will look at it see the beauty of it and try to understand the artist's mind. Others will look at and say "That's it?" "I don't get it." "I can do that." Anyway I saw what Sofia Coppola was trying to get at, I think, you never see what the artist truly is getting out.

The film starts off showing a Ferrari driving in a large circle, it does this 4 times, it stops and a man gets out and looks at the dessert around him. I already see a metaphor. Our hero (or sorts) is actor Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff) and is depressed. He has no direction over his life and is just doing circles. He drives around a lot because it's the small control he has in life. He drinks alot, smokes more and drifts from woman to woman. Johnny lives in celebrity hotel of sorts. It's a nice apartment where they will send anything up to your room (pole dancers and a weird male masseuse included). He sits around in silence with a stale face, he doesn't know what to do after he is done sitting there. Johnny doesn't want to be alone, but can't stand somebody's company for to long. Johnny drives around one day and see's an upper class woman driving too, he follows her. Does he know her or does he think she is like him?

Soon Cleo (Elle Fanning) enters his life in a pivotal moment. Cleo is his self-substaining daughter. She has raised herself in her in a sense through sheer will. Cleo is upbeat but has a sadness in her eyes and smile. Cleo's mother runs off and leaves her in Johnny's care. He needs to take care of her until she goes to camp soon (seems like 2 weeks or so). They could have made it a comedy or the movie where Cleo lets Johnny see his errors. It's kind of like the second, but there's more to it. Cleo isn't trying to fix Johnny, she's a kid with her own problems. Johnny needs to see what others mean to him and what they think of him. He needs to find a straight road (metaphor).

There are scenes of pure charm here. You'll come to care for Cleo and Johnny. You can look at many scenes and examine it like a piece of art. My favorite scene is done with a Strokes song playing in the background, You'll see the characters connecting in a lovely way.  Stephen Dorff does wonders with his role. A huge step forward and away from his action heavy films ("Blade" and "Felon", but those are still good movies, just different). He needs to let the neutralness of his expressions come through. Every emotion and gesture seems genuine. Elle Fanning is a talented young actress with a bright future. She's Dakota Fanning's little sister and has already so much more to offer (I still need to see "The Runaways" to confirm that though). "Somewhere" is a movie that is close to the heart.

9/10
Recommendation: Like my art analogy, be prepared to do some studying and thinking. It's very slow but is easy to love if the light shines through.
Side Note: The character Johnny Marco is an actor like a young Colin Farrell ("S.W.A.T", "Phone Booth", "The Recruit")