Somewhere

Stars: Stephen Dorff, Elle Fanning, Chris Pontius, Michelle Monaghan, Lala Sloatman

Director: Sofia Coppola

Movie star Johnny Marco (Dorff) is bored to distraction by the emptiness and loneliness of his life, briefly enriched and enlivened by a spell with his 11-year-old daughter (Fanning) before she goes off to summer camp. They say that money can't buy you happiness, but helps you being miserable: not here.

To say that this film requires patience is perhaps the understatement of the year. Driving a car round in circles (yes Ms Coppola, we get it), skating and pole dancing sequences take up the first 20 minutes of the movie. Slow and arty? And then some. It's beautifully photographed, but dramatically inert.

As Marco gets his face covered in plaster for an ageing shot in his latest film, the director focuses on his head for nigh on two minutes. All in all, there's just enough plot here for a 20-minute short.

Dorff, a slightly more cheerful version of Kiefer Sutherland, is nicely in character as the star faintly bewildered by the breadth of his fame. Fanning, sister of Dakota, is winningly natural as his offspring. Small compensation for the languor of the preceding 95 minutes: Bryan Ferry's great version of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes over the end credits.

David Quinlan

USA 2010. UK Distributor: Universal . Technicolor.
96 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 1, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 1, Swearing 1.

Review date: 07 Dec 2010