Stephen Dorff presumably found himself hired by Sofia Coppola in her hotel-set father/daughter drama because he is essentially the character that she wrote in her screenplay: at least, without all the success. And whilst it's true that Stephen Dorff has never managed to carve out much of a Hollywood career over the years, it's ironic that his best role is the one that pretty much asks him to parody himself. But Dorff - who was mostly unbearable in Blade and, uh, Space Truckers - puts in a genuinely tender and wonderfully nuanced performance in Somewhere; one that asks him to act for much of the movie on his lonesome, or with an actress thirty years his junior. As Johnny Marco, Dorff manages to play a convincing actor on the brink of a breakdown who also happens to be a father, and there are beautiful, quiet moments scattered throughout that Dorff pulls off with great subtlety - his facial expressions say a lot.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
