Product Details

• Actors: Elle Fanning, Stephen Dorff
• Directors: Sofia Coppola
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
• Dubbed: French, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Focus Features
• DVD Release Date: April 19, 2011
• Run Time: 98 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (81 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B003UESJLU
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #37,693 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "Somewhere" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Director Sofia Coppola's career to date exemplifies the adage to "write what you know." For her fourth feature, Francis Ford Coppola's youngest child focuses on a famous man and his daughter. Actor Johnny Marco (a surprisingly poignant Stephen Dorff) stays in Tinseltown's Chateau Marmont while promoting his latest picture. When he isn't attending press junkets, he smokes, sleeps around, and hires blonde twins who pole-dance for his entertainment (they bring their own collapsible poles). At a party, he gets so drunk he falls and breaks his wrist. Into this adult scenario, his ex-wife drops off 11-year-old Cleo (Elle Fanning) for a visit. Despite the state of suspended adolescence in which he drifts, Johnny gets a kick out of this well-behaved kid, who skates like a champ and cooks like a pro. If Cleo doesn't quite worship her delinquent dad, she enjoys his company, but when Johnny finds out her mother needs to "take some time off," he must examine a life in which mind-numbing routine takes precedence over purpose. Somewhere represents Coppola's third film about a famous figure, after Marie Antoinette, and her second about a movie star, after Lost in Translation. Johnny shares Bob's frustration with a system that treats him more like a cog in the machine than a human being. Coppola conveys his frustration best when Johnny gets fitted for an old-age mask--a remarkable sequence in which Dorff looks like a plaster monster devoid of eyes and mouth, just two holes through which to breathe. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Product Description

Actor Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff) is leading the fast-paced lifestyle of a tabloid celebrity. He's comfortably numb with his life of women and pills when his 11-year-old daughter Cleo (Elle Fanning) unexpectedly arrives at his room at Hollywood's legendary Chateau Marmont hotel. Their encounters encourage Johnny to question his life in ways he never expected.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 47 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful meditation on loneliness and love February 5, 2011

By Cinnamintz

Format:DVD

Somewhere is a beautiful meditative film about Johnny Marco (played by Stephen Dorff), a lonely, bored, dissolute Hollywood star who, by spending time with his daughter, Cleo (played by Elle Fanning) learns to love again. Elle Fanning is absolutely delightful in the role -- she is so sweet, natural, and at times, charmingly awkward. Her youth and unpretentious beauty are an effective foil to Stephen Dorff's character, who parties hard on a regular basis and looks it. Johnny is in a state of existential ennui; he lacks emotional connection with others and lives a life of instant gratification that is devoid of meaning. When Cleo's mother leaves Cleo with Johnny for an extended period of time, it gives him the chance to renew his relationship with her and thaw his heart. By learning to love Cleo, Johnny is forced to face the emptiness in his life and decides to change.

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Not quite over the rainbow... March 24, 2011

By Andrew Ellington VINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

Being the fan of Sophia Coppola that I am, `Somewhere' was my most anticipated film from last year. I literally could not wait to see it, so much so that I downloaded it to my computer months before it was released in theaters near me so that I could watch it.

For me, `Somewhere' doesn't quite live up to my expectations.

First things first, this is not a bad film at all. In fact, it is a very good film. Some of my friends have noted that they feel this is Coppola's most mature offering, and in many ways I totally agree. She has a beautiful knack for fleshing out the humanity in her stories with such graceful subtlety. She masters that here, allowing the fluid movement of the scenes to do most of the talking. While some would make sweeping statements that this is, `by far', we worst film, I can only half agree. While she shows definite maturity here, this is my least favorite of her films. In that same respect though, I can't say `by far' since the film is a very good film. I just found it too familiar. Coppola often regurgitates similar themes in her films, but she manages to make them feel fresh and unique to her own style. She doesn't quite manage that here. It drips with style (it is beautiful to look at and it moves with the grace and fluidity that we expect from Coppola) but it feels too rehashed to be anything monumentally moving. It felt like 'Lost in Translation' lite. I really liked it, and the performances are beautifully detailed, but the film itself reaches short of the greatness I was expecting.

The idea of being lost within your own life and trying to find an outlet, anything really to save you from yourself, is a great idea, but Sophia has done that four times over now and it shows on this film that she is running out of ways to make it feel soulfully individualized.

This just felt somewhat halfhearted.

And yet, I can't help but admit that had `Lost in Translation' not been released on '03 I'd probably be lauding this particular film as a masterpiece and placing it at the top of my personal ballot for Best Picture last year. Like I said, it's very good, but it is also very familiar.

But, one cannot overlook the glorious Elle Fanning and her marvelous contribution to this film. In fact, I would hand her a win over ANY of Oscar's nominated supporting actresses; in a heartbeat. I'm just going to post straight from a piece I wrote about her performance on my blog back in January.

"In Sophia Coppola's latest entry, `Somewhere', she cast the `other' Fanning girl, Elle, to play a fictional variation of herself (or I assume as much). While Coppola is one of my favorite working directors, I must say that the familiar nature of `Somewhere' was a tad underwhelming for me. That said; the naturally organic presence of Elle Fanning utterly blew me away. By merely doing nothing at all, Fanning does SO much with this character. Playing Cleo, the young daughter to Hollywood megastar Johnny Marco, Fanning isn't discomfited by her father's world. She isn't afraid to call a spade a spade (that stare at the breakfast table was superbly executed) and yet she realizes the nature of the world in which her father dwells and so she allocates herself to it with childlike ease. The construction of a Coppola film is already wildly organic in tone (it just flows in such a sublimely effortless manner) but Fanning adds so much weight to the film by relaxing right into the pace. Her character arc may seem oddly anticlimactic (also the signature ways of the director) but there is the sting of her presence that never quite goes away. You can feel her spirit moving her father to contemplate his own footsteps, and you understand why. It is less the notion that a child can reconstruct a parent and more the understanding that THIS child is something special to THAT parent. There is such intimacy presented in this performance (as well as Dorff's).

In fact, dwelling on Fanning's performance is making me appreciate the film more than I initially thought I did."

In the end, I like this movie and I highly recommend it. Sophia Coppola is a masterful director and I cannot wait to see what she delivers to us next. She understands the beauty of the human spirit and she weaves magic out of simplicity, which is something most directors don't bother to consider. I want her to branch out on her next project though. I want to see her step outside her comfort zone and prove to the world that she isn't one-track minded. I know she has more in her. As it is, she ranks very high for me and is probably one of my top five working directors today. With a little spice she could easily become number one.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Somewhere is memorable April 19, 2011

By Michael P. Ofarrell

Format:Blu-ray

I'm not going to waste a lot of space defending this film. This is one movie that truly has people divided regarding its merits. For me, "Somewhere" was beguiling, fascinating, humorous and ultimately deeply moving. I suppose Sophia Coppola's films are an acquired taste but if so I can only state that those who are able to tune in to her work have great taste in movies. Coppola's screenplays are very spare, and this film follows that tradition. The storytelling that the director utilizes goes beyond a formal script but don't think for a minute that what is going on onscreen (or not going on, for that matter) is nothing at all. The characters here are utterly real, the emotions are genuine and the day to day, seemingly mundane, along with joyous and melancholy moments, create a specific point of view very unique to this filmmaker. "Somewhere" doesn't quite have the magic that made "Lost In Translation' so unforgettable, but it succeeds nevertheless in creating characters the viewer can care about. Stephen Dorff gives a memorable performance as a not quite middle aged movie actor whose life has reached an impasse. Holed up in Hollywood's famed Chateau Marmont between movie press engagements, Dorff as Johnny Marco seems to be deeply depressed, living day to day in nearly non-existence mode, until his young daughter (the lovely Elle Fanning) shows up. Again, I'm not going to spend a great deal of time going over plot details (I can hear now several voices asking, "What Plot?"). My recommendation is, See This Film.