ON THE ROCKS
****
Director: Sofia Coppola
Screenwriter: Sofia Coppola
Principal cast:
Bill Murray
Rashida Jones
Marlon Wayans
Jenny Slate
Jessica Henwick
Barbara Bain
Country: USA
Classification: M
Runtime: 96 mins.
Australian release date: 2 October 2020.
“I was thinking a lot about my father and that whole generation of men, that ‘martini generation’ who were such characters but also part of what could be a very objectifying culture. And, I was also thinking about how your relationship with your father affects your relationships and marriage,” Sofia Coppola explains when talking about the idea behind her new film On The Rocks. “How do we relate to these men in our lives who we deeply love, but who we don’t always see eye-to-eye with when it comes to how men and women relate?” Her sophisticated, adult, comedy/drama is also a pre-COVID paean to life in New York, ‘the city that never sleeps’. It delves into the lives of a philandering man who is, in fact, alone, and his daughter, who is concerned that her marriage is failing, but he’s not exactly the best person to turn to for marital advice.
Felix (Bill Murray), a successful, semi-retired art gallery owner, cuts a lonely figure, having destroyed most of his intimate relationships with his playboy ways. His daughter Laura (Rashida Jones, the daughter of composer Quincy Jones) is a young mother and author suffering a severe case of writer’s block. She and her husband Dean (Marlon Wayans), who’s recently launched a start-up company that’s on the up-and-up, live with their two adorable daughters in a downtown NYC apartment but he’s spending more and more time away on business… with an attractive employee in tow. When Laura happens to mention this to Felix, he begins to sow seeds of doubt in her mind, saying that it is hard-wired in men’s natures to seduce other women. He’s full of gee-whiz facts about relations between the sexes such as, when he admires a new bracelet on Laura’s wrist, “A bangle is a reminder that women were regarded as men’s property”. Certain there’s something to his theories, based on his own bad behaviour, he turns up in his chauffeur-driven car and insists that Laura dine with him, where he convinces her that they have to follow Dean to see if he really is having an affair. Not feeling entirely confident anyway, she allows herself to fall for his not very good advice. Plus, there’s that nagging doubt – could he be right?
On The Rocks is the second pairing of the director/writer and Bill Murray, after 2003’s wonderful Lost In Translation, and it’s great to have them reunited. He is perfectly cast as this urbane, wealthy man-child who excuses his philandering ways by saying that, “We [men] all just want to be loved”, as though he has no say in the matter, he’s just doing what comes naturally. His foil, Jones, works really well with him, the two seeming to be genuinely at ease in each other’s company. She’s terrific, in almost every scene and often in close-up, so it’s a mystery why we haven’t seen more of her on the big screen. Her work to date has mainly been in television, often voicing characters in animated series. Wayans deftly plays Dean, always leaving just enough doubt and uncertainty in his delivery to make us wonder whether he’s ‘playing away’ or not.
This is a very smart script from Sofia Coppola, who’s always been a director unafraid to venture down paths less travelled by her contemporaries, and On The Rocks is no exception. She consistently writes her own material (usually very well), regardless of genre, and she deservedly won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for Lost In Translation. On the strength of her latest work, this clever writer/director could well pick up another nomination in that category at the next Academy Awards. It’s that good.
Screenwriter: Sofia Coppola
Principal cast:
Bill Murray
Rashida Jones
Marlon Wayans
Jenny Slate
Jessica Henwick
Barbara Bain
Country: USA
Classification: M
Runtime: 96 mins.
Australian release date: 2 October 2020.
“I was thinking a lot about my father and that whole generation of men, that ‘martini generation’ who were such characters but also part of what could be a very objectifying culture. And, I was also thinking about how your relationship with your father affects your relationships and marriage,” Sofia Coppola explains when talking about the idea behind her new film On The Rocks. “How do we relate to these men in our lives who we deeply love, but who we don’t always see eye-to-eye with when it comes to how men and women relate?” Her sophisticated, adult, comedy/drama is also a pre-COVID paean to life in New York, ‘the city that never sleeps’. It delves into the lives of a philandering man who is, in fact, alone, and his daughter, who is concerned that her marriage is failing, but he’s not exactly the best person to turn to for marital advice.
Felix (Bill Murray), a successful, semi-retired art gallery owner, cuts a lonely figure, having destroyed most of his intimate relationships with his playboy ways. His daughter Laura (Rashida Jones, the daughter of composer Quincy Jones) is a young mother and author suffering a severe case of writer’s block. She and her husband Dean (Marlon Wayans), who’s recently launched a start-up company that’s on the up-and-up, live with their two adorable daughters in a downtown NYC apartment but he’s spending more and more time away on business… with an attractive employee in tow. When Laura happens to mention this to Felix, he begins to sow seeds of doubt in her mind, saying that it is hard-wired in men’s natures to seduce other women. He’s full of gee-whiz facts about relations between the sexes such as, when he admires a new bracelet on Laura’s wrist, “A bangle is a reminder that women were regarded as men’s property”. Certain there’s something to his theories, based on his own bad behaviour, he turns up in his chauffeur-driven car and insists that Laura dine with him, where he convinces her that they have to follow Dean to see if he really is having an affair. Not feeling entirely confident anyway, she allows herself to fall for his not very good advice. Plus, there’s that nagging doubt – could he be right?
On The Rocks is the second pairing of the director/writer and Bill Murray, after 2003’s wonderful Lost In Translation, and it’s great to have them reunited. He is perfectly cast as this urbane, wealthy man-child who excuses his philandering ways by saying that, “We [men] all just want to be loved”, as though he has no say in the matter, he’s just doing what comes naturally. His foil, Jones, works really well with him, the two seeming to be genuinely at ease in each other’s company. She’s terrific, in almost every scene and often in close-up, so it’s a mystery why we haven’t seen more of her on the big screen. Her work to date has mainly been in television, often voicing characters in animated series. Wayans deftly plays Dean, always leaving just enough doubt and uncertainty in his delivery to make us wonder whether he’s ‘playing away’ or not.
This is a very smart script from Sofia Coppola, who’s always been a director unafraid to venture down paths less travelled by her contemporaries, and On The Rocks is no exception. She consistently writes her own material (usually very well), regardless of genre, and she deservedly won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for Lost In Translation. On the strength of her latest work, this clever writer/director could well pick up another nomination in that category at the next Academy Awards. It’s that good.
