| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| BaftaBaby |
Posted - 12/14/2010 : 23:05:01
Nope, I just don't get what the fuss is about. Coppola's kid's not a bad director, but there's just nothing memorable that she brings to this ho-hum tale. Dorff is just fine, and so indeed is Elle Fanning, but in the end - who cares?
Would the praise be lavished as thickly as brie on toast if Coppola weren't her daddy's daughter? I think not, and certainly not for this film.
For openers, we've got twenty minutes of almost wordless "flavor" - putting Dorff as filmstar Johnny Marco in context as a divorced dad whose ex dumps the kid on him while she "finds herself." Twenty minutes that could easily have been squeezed into five, for all it actually provided.
Then the rest of the film is a series of some almost-arbitrary moments of Dorff-dad coping. Or not, as the case may be.
I don't care if the concept is supposed to be some recognition of Coppola's own childhood. In fact, she hardly makes me care about any of it, mostly because we've seen it all before in more crafted hands.
I've read that some folks think this is a compassionate film. It's slick, I'll grant you that. And there are no glaring errors. But it's got all the compassion of a l'Oreal commercial. And I'm worth more than that.
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