Movie Review: "On the Rocks" is Take-Your-Daughter-to-Jerk Day for Bill Murray & Rashida Jones

From Sofia Coppola, director of Lost in Translation.

On the Rocks stars Rashida Jones as Laura, a married author in New York City who starts suspecting her husband, Dean (Marlon Wayans), of having an affair. The evidence is scarce, but poison is dripped into her ear by her raffish dad Felix (Bill Murray), who similarly cheated on Laura’s mother and has a headful of excuses explaining why men are evolutionarily-designed to be unfaithful to their partners.

So, they start spying on Dean, to Felix’s delight, and to Laura’s sad resignation.

That’s it. That’s the film.

I don’t mean the above as a criticism. Well, not entirely. And for many, the promise of Bill Murray simply doing his shtick and collaborating again with writer-director Sofia Coppola seventeen years after Lost in Translation will be enough—and it better be, because like I said, this is seriously it.

What I mean though is that On the Rocks is a fun father-daughter caper that relies almost entirely on Murray and Jones’ chemistry and the aesthetic pleasures of watching them drive around (a pre-locked-down) NYC in a vintage convertible or taking in a drink at a smoky bar. He charms the waitresses, she rolls her eyes, fin.

Or maybe that’s an unfair simplification: the relatable (despite her character’s wealth) Jones is understatedly excellent as Laura, who contorts Dean’s and her father’s shortcomings into an evaluation of her own failings as a wife, mother, daughter and woman. As such, On the Rocks becomes a welcome addition to Coppola’s filmography detailing the inner lives of women (which is enough of a rarity between Coppola's releases, and keep in mind, this is only her seventh movie). Being about an inner life, much is left unsaid, so if you need it spelled out, listen to the lyrics to Phoenix’s original song "Identical" from the soundtrack. (Thomas Mars from Phoenix is Sofia's husband.)

Just don’t expect anything as transcendent as the melancholy Lost in Translation, as mournful as The Virgin Suicides, as riotous as the buttoned-up sex-comedy The Beguiled, or as convention-busting as the iconoclastic Marie Antoinette. Its closest comparison would be the underrated Somewhere, though this time Coppola heads critics off at the pass by at least giving On the Rocks a plot. But as her latest winds its way to its low-key finale, remember that I warned you here this is a glide, not a ride.

Wayans is surprisingly good as the decent husband and father whose professional self-centeredness is either masking an illicit relationship with a co-worker, or just garden-variety man-ness. However, Coppola’s script is far more concerned with the relationship between Laura and Felix. In fact, Laura only thinks she’s investigating her husband; it’s her dad that is truly revealed by their adventure, and the picture's best moment is when she finally comes to understand who he really is. Considering Lost in Translation was semi-autobiographical for Coppola, you have to wonder if the cultured, wine-loving Felix is a stand-in for her own famous dad, the filmmaker and vigneron Francis. If so: ouch.

Before that boom drops, you’ll get plenty of pithy exchanges between Murray and Jones, and Coppola rewards her leading man with brilliantly funny punchlines. I won’t call them witty, per se, because his caddish character is really just toxic masculinity in a pleasing package. This time, he tells the jokes and is the joke, as in this exchange with Jones, when Laura explains to Felix that, despite his claims, "You can’t go deaf just to women." Murray, now 70, returns in a crackly, vulnerable voice that still thinks it’s the smartest in the room: "It’s the pitch."

3/5

On the Rocks will be screening at Palace Cinemas (excluding Victoria) nationally from 2 October and will be on Apple TV+ from 23 October. It’s rated M for coarse language and sexual references.