On the Rocks (2020) ***

 

If Sofia Coppola never does anything else in her career, she will always have directed “Lost in Translation.” The problem, for her, is that everything else she does do is destined to be compared to that film. “On the Rocks” is a decent, little movie, but it is no “Lost in Translation.” (To be fair, Coppola also directed the TV special “A Very Murray Christmas,” which is in its own, bizarre category, and as good in its way as “Lost in Translation.”)

Rashida Jones plays Laura, a writer whose creativity is being smothered by what most would consider a rewarding, comfortable life. She has a handsome, successful husband, lives in a beautiful, New York apartment, and her lovely children attend a good school, giving her several hours of peace and quiet each day to work on her novel. The problem, as Charles Bukowski put it in the movie “Barfly,” is that “nobody who could write worth a damn could ever write in peace.” Bored with herself and her writer's block, Laura starts to wonder if her husband, Dean (Marlon Wayans), is fooling around with his gorgeous assistant. Egged on by her womanizing father (Bill Murray), Laura starts spying on Dean, behavior which is obviously corrosive to her marriage even as it lets her spend quality time with her dad.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this film; it's just kind of forgettable. If you enjoy a talky dramedy, check it out. If it passes you by, you aren't going to be missing out on a critical part of the cultural conversation. Now, if you haven't seen "Lost in Translation" or “A Very Murray Christmas,” that's a situation that needs to be remedied!

3 stars out of 5

Playing on AppleTV