ON THE ROCKS, An Apple Original Films and A24 Release, is now playing in select theaters. Available on Apple TV+ Friday, October 23.
Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation is among the most iconic and effortless two-handers of the last few decades. Translation's cozy melancholy and dry wit of played into and even helped form a bit of a sub-genre of postmodern, romantic-or-maybe-not "conversation" movies, where two very different but equally magnetic people (usually of opposite sex) meet up or run into one another and talk about existence and relationships and find new meaning in the process.
It's no surprise that Coppola, herself almost two decades older and more lived than when she wrote Translation, would revisit this format to give what's a maybe slightly more grown-up or weathered rendition. Coppola herself has, since then, gone through a divorce from director Spike Jonze, "elements of experiences" of which made their way into Translation's female lead Charlotte, and she has also re-married and had two children. Perspective changes as life does, and her new film, On the Rocks, displays measured and appropriate thematic shifts from Translation. Its ability to engage, however, is maybe not quite as steady.
Whereas Translation was about two disillusioned and isolated strangers meeting in a strange land, On the Rocks is the story of a woman and her father, and how differently they view relationships. Laura (Rashida Jones) is a successful writer in New York City. Her husband Dean (Marlon Wayans) is a successful and incredibly busy marketing lead. They have two adorable children together. In a lot of ways, they have it made.
But Laura is beginning to feel like Dean's attention is being pulled too far away by work, or something worse. He's constantly coming home late or not at all as he's flying across the country for various impromptu sales meetings. And when he does come, it's like he's not interested in her; not the way he used to be. To add insult to injury, these business plans always (sometimes exclusively) involve his gorgeous assistant Fiona (Jessica Henwick), with whom he gets along great.
Even if Laura could ignore these apparent red flags on her own, her dad Felix (Bill Murray) isn't having it. Felix himself was far from the example husband to Laura's mother, or father to her. But that's exactly why he understands so well the compulsion of promiscuity, which he believes all men are destined to indulge, and he knows how to tell when a guy is being unfaithful. And he's pretty confident Dean is up to know good. So he suggests they investigate.
What ensues is a relationship dramedy told from a perspective outside the relationship, styled as a very low-key and casual detective mystery. Felix uses his vast monetary and social resources to keep tabs on Dean, mob boss-style, and while Laura is initially horrified at the invasion of Dean's privacy, she can't help but wonder if her Dad, the most veteran playboy she knows, might just be onto something.
On paper, it sounds like something out of a typical studio comedy, one which could be played for big, dumb laughs and near-miss pratfalls as Felix and Laura narrowly evade Dean's notice. But Coppola, as one could expect, plays it with a dry class. Murray is Murray, deadpanning his way through even the most sentimental conversations, which contrasts Jones's far more naturally outward frustration and incredulity, both at the no-good that Dean seems to be up to, and at Felix's callous and absurd invasion into her and Dean's life.
This combination of class, wit, and simmering emotionality is On the Rocks' greatest appeal. Felix is essentially James Bond without a license to kill, wooing and smarming his way around waitresses, dancers, and police officers, which is both incredibly entertaining and depressing, as his interest in Laura's marriage at times reads more as perverse, amused fascination than genuine concern for her. The best scenes are the ones where Laura sits in awe, mouth literally agape, at not only her father's audacity to do and say the things he does, but the skill with which he does them. There's something weirdly impressive about his unique brand of chauvinism.
Jones perfectly contrasts Murray's dryness with an earnestness that never lets Murray get away with running the show. It's still very clearly all about Laura, even when Felix is trying to make it about himself.
My biggest frustration with On the Rocks is that I don't think it really knows what it wants to be about, or what it wants to accomplish. Laura's dynamic with her father is obviously the centerpiece and the main interest; it's clear that this story is more about them than it is about her marriage. But the film never really dives deep into their relationship, the ways that it's damaged, or the ways that it could be fixed (or even whether or not either character is interested in fixing them). And at the same time, the incredibly banal and conventional conclusion to their investigation on Dean (don't worry, no spoilers) would lead you to believe that... maybe it's actually just a marriage drama, and the father/daughter stuff is just set dressing?
While it's undeniably charming to watch Laura's and Felix's dynamic unfold, the exploration of it never reached a particularly satisfactory result. The wispy implications about their relationship are more interesting than what the film actually gives to us. And the last minute insistence that her relationship with Dean is the real centerpiece, and the premature sloughing off of the Felix angle as a result, left me wondering, why? Don't get me wrong, Wayans gives a strong performance as Dean, but there's simply not enough there on the page to cement their marriage as the key ingredient.
For 80% of the film, it's very clearly about Laura and Felix, until it decides, through two incredibly conventional, back-to-back "hashing it out" scenes, that it's not. It's a strange lapse into bland, straightforward relationship drama tropes after two acts of delightfully off-kilter father-daughter exploration.
Even with the drab finale changeup, On the Rocks is a unique blend of cute, cool, sad, and provocative that will sufficiently charm on the middle-act dialogue scenes alone. It's one I could see myself picking out clips from to mull over as acting and writing masterclasses. It's just too bad some of the oddball parental dynamic got lost in the translation to a typical marriage drama. (Sorry.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn3sK4WiviA&ab_channel=A24&w=585