触礁

First thing first, let me finally get it off my chest, what has on earth happened to Oscar-nominated director Sofia Coppola’s once-rosy career? After contentiously copping Venice’s Golden Lion with SOMEWHERE (2010), a film many finds meritless of such honor, her subsequent offers are met with muted reception at best, even Cannes’ BEST DIRECTOR trophy for THE BEGUILED (2017) doesn’t amount to nothing. Now her seventh feature ON THE ROCKS arrives, reunited with Bill Murray, and further surveys the “father issue” extended from SOMEWHERE, does that bode well?

Unfortunately, the movie will not alter much of her stagnated status quo, it is well-shot (those landscape and cityscape shots are too enthralling for the movie's tepid story), but the whole fuss about a woman’s suspicion of her husband’s infidelity unfolds without any modicum of novelty. Rashida Jones plays Laura Keane, wife of Dean (Wayans), an entrepreneurial upstart, they have two young girls and Laura is cornily stuck in a writer’s block, as her time is chiefly allotted to child-rearing, while Dean frequently hops on business trips as the high-flying breadwinner.

Reaching 40, Laura becomes insecure of her sex appeal and suspects Dean is having an affair with his younger, voluptuous co-worker Fiona (Henwick), unwisely, instead of leveling with her significant other of her sixth sense-driven conjuncture (that would end the movie in 2 minutes), she resorts to the counsel from her father Felix (Murray), a hardened playboy, who left her mother years ago and cast unsolved scars in its aftermath. So the initial cutesy father-daughter binding episodes soon devolve into the dual play of Felix’s faintly haughty mansplaining and Laura’s incessant self-denial with a mild protestation of vexation, which will tediously run out of stream down the line.

The rub is, neither Laura or Felix is an interesting character to begin with, which comes quite a shock to Yours Truly, because Coppola used to be rather adroit in molding her characters with nuances and niceties. But here, all three chief players are showered in the pervasive uppity New York chic, which cannot abate the triteness derived from the facts that they are so clichéd and oblivious from the rest of the world, for instance, Laura cannot even sustain small talk with an elderly woman in a posh party she attends with Felix, and can barely bear with a fellow quibbling mother (Slate).

When Laura finally gives Felix a piece of her mind, Jones acts more like a galled baby than a disaffected, long-suffered sophisticate Laura is designed to be, she is fighting a losing battle before she can finish her sentences, and Murray’s resigned response “why aren’t you funny anymore?” is even more grating, paternalism dies hard, to Felix, a daughter’s paramount asset is fun-inducing, and Murray is in excellent form, unfazed, debonair, persistently gets his own way, though his grand deportment is critically undercut by Felix's repugnant characterization.

Laura never stands a chance to better herself as an independent individual, in the end, she is just passed from one man to another, with the symbolic watch switch, that message doesn’t quite swim with our current tide of woman-empowerment. Sofia, being a female and a member of the Coppola Dynasty, has been wearing a Teflon armor for too long, and the “father issue” she tries to come to terms with is more personal and regressive than we can give its credits for. Since many other budding women directors are finally thick on the ground, perhaps it is high time that we look elsewhere for the next auteur-to-be from the distaff side.

referential entries: Coppola’s SOMEWHERE (2010, 6.6/10); LOST IN TRANSLATION (2003, 8.8/10).

电影结束的意外，让我有些意犹未尽的感觉。索菲亚·科波拉总有的意境是一般导演达不到的情怀，这就好似她父亲的世界观如此完美与宏大。或许从小在身边耳濡目染造就了这样的她。

说实话，鄙人的确拿它当《迷失东京》的续集在看这部影片。得到些许感受，只不过是个人的意淫方式罢了。不过在这一点上，我是与此片中比尔·莫瑞饰演的父亲如出一辙。

迷失东京 (2003)

7.8

2003 / 美国 日本 / 剧情 爱情 / 索菲亚·科波拉 / 斯嘉丽·约翰逊 比尔·默瑞

我心中最好的索菲娅·科波拉

这一次是父女的关系，但探讨生活方式的结构还是索菲亚·科波拉的样子。电影开篇是爵士乐流淌耳边，慢慢开画。线条基调一直向上进行，随着比尔·莫瑞的出现，开始平行直至影片结束，没有下滑的节奏。摩登凡士林与琐碎生活就这样交替进行着，直至结束。这里不论谁活的更好，只有怎样的方式使你舒服。

This is it，这个影片的全部，就是科波拉女士想要说的东西，但是鉴于新时代流媒体与苹果公司的介入，对她的创作到底有没有受到些许的影响，我不敢说……不过，火候相对以往，确实是差点意思！！

故事号称是喜剧，以一种奇妙的方式展开了一场“捉奸”大战。

然而，感觉其中的喜剧成分也不是很重要。

父女关系、夫妻关系、朋友关系、翁婿关系，这些平常不过的关系里头，都隐藏着莫名的危机感。

这种感觉，究竟是如何产生的，可能都找不到来由，自然而然就这么来了。

女主很慌张。

说起来，女主可以说是现代独立女性的代表，已经完全实现财务自由。

按照现行标准来说的话，可以不在乎任何人的感觉。

但是，风流倜傥的老爸，感觉吻了别人的老公，叨叨的闺蜜，这一切都在无声无息的侵扰着她的生活。

女主就在这样的日子里疲于奔命。

职业上的强者，并不一定是生活中的强者。

女主在怀疑、焦虑中惶惶不可终日。

“安全感”这种东西，大概是不存在的，人的天性里头，就对未知的未来充满担忧。

往往越追求“安全感”，往往最后却得不到。

故事虽然有一个啼笑皆非的结局，给了女主一个“妥善”的安排。

然而，这一切真的重要吗？

或许，该发生的还是会发生，该担心的还是该担心，该焦虑的还是该焦虑。

毕竟，故事里头给出的那些“误会”，都抵不过老公的一个下意识所出卖的“疑点”。

比尔默瑞出演风流的老头，一点没有违和感。故事可以说靠着比尔默瑞串成基本线。

这个老头，有不少缺点。

但女主个性里头的担忧、犹疑、焦虑，或许就需要老头这么毫无顾忌的推一把。

又有多少女性在“不敢求证”的惶惶中越发的焦虑而找不到出路。

Are we returning to another inane plotline of a picture-perfect bourgeois family (in NYC, which elevates the notion to its own standard) safe sailing through a marital misunderstanding? And the WOMAN has to apologize for her suspicion to save the marriage? I thought Sofia could do better and offer something deeper than just the young, affluent couple in their Soho apartment with their beautiful caramel-colored kids. The characters all felt a bit forced and cliched, which ultimately leads to their untrustworthy presence and our failed sympathy for the marriage's potential imploding. I felt so silly for even thinking that there would be a milestone in mending the father-daughter relationship. The proof that Dean has not been cheating is enough proof for Laura to bark back at her dad for putting ideas in her head? Please, her guts tell her the same, at least own the truth and ask your husband

1) Why did you give me fancy cookware as a birthday gift (even if it is part of a joke)?

2) Why do you keep asking how's the writing going as if you would like a progress report?

Here is some food for thought - If Dean has been perfectly innocent and such a model husband to provide for the family, then why did he delete all of Fiona's texts?

索菲亚·科波拉的新电影《触礁》(On the Rocks)应该是她的作品中最清汤寡水的一部，虽然先天条件仍然超好，她自己编剧、执导，Bill Murray主演。科波拉对喜剧演员Bill Murray情有独钟，大致相当于在自己杰出的父亲之外又一位心有灵犀的年长男性。十几年前两人合作过《迷失在东京》，前几年还拍过一个圣诞特别节目，现在是第三次主要合作。

故事中曼哈顿SOHO的年轻妈妈Laura担心丈夫出轨，她首先寻求Bill Murray扮演的父亲Felix的帮助。打小的时候父亲就告诉女儿，“不要向任何男生交心，直到结婚你都是我的女儿，结婚以后也还是。”挑战在于父亲一生保持着系统性出轨的习惯，女儿找他咨询有点像找江洋大盗请教防范小偷的经验。

父女之间的对话刚开始定位极高。面对Laura的质疑，Felix将不遵守单一配偶制归因于人类进化的刚性需求，但这场探讨在电影中缺少持续开展的空间。我的感觉，实际上这部作品意在表现孤独和倦怠，不是深山老林里独处、白天沐浴日光晚上沐浴月光的孤独和倦怠，而是亲人朋友同事环绕、终日忙碌奔波时候的失魂落魄。

中年危机，在搭上个古怪精灵的老爸，世界就翻天了。 比尔·默瑞这个老戏骨就演绎了这样的老父亲，有意思。中年危机，在搭上个古怪精灵的老爸，世界就翻天了。 比尔·默瑞这个老戏骨就演绎了这样的老父亲，有意思。中年危机，在搭上个古怪精灵的老爸，世界就翻天了。 比尔·默瑞这个老戏骨就演绎了这样的老父亲，有意思。中年危机，在搭上个古怪精灵的老爸，世界就翻天了。 比尔·默瑞这个老戏骨就演绎了这样的老父亲，有意思。