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Stars: Stephen Dorff, Elle Fanning,Chris Pontius and Layla Sloatman
Director/Scriptwriter: Sophia Coppola
Cinematography: Harris Savides
Focus Features/American Zoetrope
Rating: R for sexual content, nudity and language
Running Length: 98 minutes

Director/writer Sophia Coppola comes up with another story about the emptiness in life. In this case, Stephen Dorff plays Johnny Marco, a successful movie star, who drives a sleek, black sports car with a motor that purrs, has girls at his beck and call, lives in a posh hotel with staff that tell no secrets, and travels around the world. Johnny also has a failed marriage and an eleven-year-old daughter named Cleo (Elle Fanning.) In spite of what we would call the riches of life, Johnny is emotionally empty.

The story begins with a sports car racing around a track. This doesn't seem to mean anything other than burning off psyche steam, but later we realize that Johnny Marco is going through the paces of life like an robot. The rut gets deeper and deeper until his daughter suddenly comes for a prolonged visit. It seems as though Mom wants time for herself---perhaps she is in  a similar rut. In between is Cleo, smarter than her years, oozing talent in ice skating (great photography of an almost-graceful eleven-year-old practicing for competition) and even cooking. Dad falls back on his pole dancing girls for adult pleasure until he begins to see Cleo in a new light.  He IS a father and she is growing out of his life before his eyes. Is it too late for him? 

Stephen Dorff gives us an actor (and we don’t see him in a role) receiving accolades for his work, admiring fans and perks of the business. This actor seems to be a facade for Johnny Marco who has hidden his real self under booze, a fast car and women. Enter a daughter who pops in and out of his life at regular intervals. At first, Dorff shows a bored expression with Cleo being there, but gradually a pride peeks through and he likes having here there. Like sunshine coming through a crack in a cellar window. Johnny has to start pushing that facade away and discovering what is underneath. The relationship between Dorff and Elle Fanning is like father and daughter. She cooks him breakfast and they play video games together. Johnny is healing a broken left wrist, so he has time between roles for Cleo. When she sheds real tears about leaving to go to camp, it stops him short. Cleo says, “Mom leaves, you leave…I don't know what to do.”  This is real emotion and in his life.

The atmosphere of a Hollywood star is throughout the movie with even a cameo appearance by Benicio del Toro as someone Marco meets in a hotel. There are sessions with publicists, agents and the excess trappings of a wealthy career. Heady and overwhelming. You can see how marriages fail, and the children fall in-between. We don’t know how Johnny got to this point in his career, but it is a fork in the road for him. Somewhere…..there is an answer.

Copyright 2010 Marie Asner