{"id":9546,"date":"2020-10-23T03:20:37","date_gmt":"2020-10-23T03:20:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/?p=9546"},"modified":"2020-10-24T03:21:13","modified_gmt":"2020-10-24T03:21:13","slug":"on-the-rocks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/on-the-rocks\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Rocks"},"content":{"rendered":"
[vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Sofia Coppola whips up a cocktail not as potent as we hoped it would be, but it has some enjoyable moments. Always fun to watch, Bill Murray is a hoot, even when he plays a likable cad. Rashida Jones, as his daughter, is a good foil for his antics while bringing emotion to her role as a frustrated wife, mother and author. They have some moments with cute repartee.<\/p>\n

The film starts with\u00a0 <\/span>Felix (Murray) giving an order to his daughter, Laura (Jones),\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cDon\u2019t give your heart to any boy until you\u2019re married…and you\u2019re still mine.\u201d When Daddy\u2019s girl confesses that she suspects her marriage with handsome hunk, Dean, (Marlon Wayons) may be on the rocks, Daddy, who\u2019s apparently had some some experience with divorce, pulls out the stops. He wants to comfort Laura. But, he also convinces her to join him in\u00a0 <\/span>playing detective to find out if hubby is cheating.<\/p>\n

Laura is an author with writer\u2019s block who has become a sad wife. She\u2019s\u00a0 <\/span>more concerned with the house and the kids. She\u2019s dresses a bit dowdy and downtrodden, even with her adorable little girls. Coppola seems to be making a statement, to a certain extent, on women\u2019s plight. Laura is going through the motions shopping, cooking, and taking the kids to school. Coppola casts comedian Jenny Slate as Vanessa, a non-stop talker always finding Laura while waiting for their kids at school. Vanessa is most annoying, spewing about dating, adding fuel to the fire. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the meantime, Laura is getting mixed messages from workaholic Dean\u2019s phone calls and texts. He\u2019s always having late night meetings with colleagues, including one named Fiona (Jessica Henwick). What\u2019s up with that?[\/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”9553″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” css_animation=”fadeInUp”][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”9551″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” css_animation=”fadeInUp”][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”9549″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” css_animation=”fadeInUp”][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]When she decides to confide her doubts to Felix, their Daddy\/Daughter lunches and dinners over cocktails focus on whether her marriage is on the rocks. These scenes are slow and seem never-ending. This is where the film lags. Better when they\u2019re out and about and Felix is pouring on the charm as he even does with a barista. Laura finally asks, \u201cCan you be around a woman without hitting on her? To which he replies, \u201cYou used to be fun.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Felix is very connected in the art world, and Coppola adds some scenes of Daddy showing off his friend\u2019s Monet painting. Felix is a real operator and steamroller. He talks her into all kinds of shenanigans, including secretly following Dean coming out of a meeting, speeding down streets recklessly in his red roadster so fast, he gets stopped by a cop. Coppola makes it a little too convenient that Felix knows the cop\u2019s father and is even able to smooth-talk his way out of a ticket.<\/p>\n

Laura gets even more suspicious when Dean apologizes for having to go to Mexico for a meeting on her birthday. Oh, and of course it\u2019s with Fiona and the office crew. Felix persuades her to \u201cthink like a man\u201d and for both of them to go south of the border to stake out what Dean is really up to. Felix and Laura hiding in hedges and running all over the resort grounds just \u00a0 <\/span>gets slap-schtick silly. Bill Murray\u2019s performance feels like a \u201cbest hits\u201d album. He easily falls back on his history of roles as that charming cad.\u00a0 <\/span>Think Lost in Translation, Ground Hog Day, Caddy Shack, Stripes.\u00a0<\/span><\/i>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”9548″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” css_animation=”fadeInUp”][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”9554″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” css_animation=”fadeInUp”][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”9556″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” css_animation=”fadeInUp”][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]In this iteration, Felix has unlimited wealth and is all knowing except when it comes to his daughter. He loves her but can\u2019t stop hurting her in the name trying to protect her. He\u2019s loving, yet at the core, he\u2019s self-centered, controlling and selfish. Does he really know what\u2019s best for his little girl?<\/p>\n

Rashida Jones is beautiful but stays wary and deadpan as this insecure wife and writer. When she becomes suspicious of her husband, her transformation into a self-doubting sleuth comes off as a bit inauthentic. The scenes of them running around a resort in Mexico to see what Dean is really doing is contrived comedy. The pacing is slow until, all of a sudden, the various ribbons of the plot are conveniently tied into a nice little bow.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Laura has some quick quips and comebacks interacting with Dad, but Coppola clearly makes Bill Murray the focus of the laughs. Sofia Coppola is capable of so much more, and as is Rashida Jones. Even though Bill Murray can make us laugh with so little effort, we think this filmed could have mined a more rock solid ending.<\/p>\n

A24 & Apple TV+ \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>1 hour 36 minutes \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>R<\/i><\/b>[\/vc_column_text][vc_video link=”https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Xn3sK4WiviA” el_width=”80″ align=”center” css_animation=”fadeInUp”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][\/vc_section]\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Sofia Coppola whips up a cocktail not as potent as we hoped it would be, but it has some enjoyable moments. Always fun to watch, Bill Murray is a hoot, even when he plays a likable cad. Rashida Jones, as his daughter, is a good foil for his antics while bringing emotion to her role […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9557,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9546"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9561,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9546\/revisions\/9561"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}