I loved Lost in Translation, but it sure seems like that was more about Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson than it was the writing or directing. Coppola loves her open endings -- remember Murray whispering in Scarlett's ear at the end? -- and here we have another one. Only the LIT ending makes sense within the context of the story. He has to leave Japan so he finds her and tells her... whatever. Then leaves.
In Somewhere we have Johnny leaving the keys in his Ferrari and walking down a desert highway. Where is he going? I get that he's leaving his superficial life behind, but the way a real person would do that would be to go to the Ferrari dealership and sell his car, then go buy another (less extravagant) one, and then go pick his daughter up from camp.
If the goal was to show how he has matured in the time he spent with his daughter, then he should have pulled the car over when she was crying and tell her that he will be there for her when her camp was over, no matter where her mom is. Okay, so he has to go through a crisis after dropping her off. He calls Layla, which through internet detective work I have figured out is his baby mamma. So he was able to get her on the phone but his daughter wasn't? Anyway, fine, he goes through a crisis, so at that point, show him selling the car, buying something else, and going to pick up his daughter at camp.
There were lots of long, drawn out shots of unnecessary things, but I get it -- Coppola sees herself as an artiste, and that's fine. Some parts were beautifully shot, if slow. But at least have your characters do things that are normal within the context of being a father of another human being.
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