“The rap on Sofia Coppola‘s Somewhere is actually true,” writes Marshall Fine. “This is a film in which very little happens and very little is said. [It is] the second seriously Antonioni-esque film of this year (The American was the other) and one that is bound to divide viewers dramatically.

“Coppola’s minimalism has bothered me in the past; both The Virgin Suicides and Marie Antoinette seemed like films in which the look, the feel and the music were more important than the characters or the story. But with Lost in Translation and now with Somewhere, she finds a way to turn that minimalism into a gift, a style that forces you to put yourself in the mind of the character, whose reaction to what he’s involved with has little to do with what he shows to the world.

“There’s a found-art quality to Somewhere, a sense that Coppola has snuck up on the best moments in the film and captured them with a camera. But it’s really a beautifully constructed venture, filled with revelations that go off in your brain like little time bombs.

“If you can swing with Coppola, if you watch the film with an understanding that it’s as much about what you don’t see as what you do, if you recognize that these are the moments that usually happen off-camera but which reveal more than what is usually shown — well, you’re in for a rich and haunting treat.”