On The Rocks: A Rocky Road

On The Rocks is is a drama from Sofia Coppola starring Bill Murray, Rashida Jones, and Marlon Wayans.

The red flags started early in this lackluster drama when its first words were, (spoken by the main character’s father): “And remember, don’t give your heart to any boys. You’re mine. Until you get married. Then you’re still mine.”

Searching for a comedy to take my mind off the debacle that was 2020, I decided to watch On The Rocks, Sofia Coppola’s new film. Instead of the “bittersweet comedy” it was touted as, what I witnessed for 97 minutes was an unfortunate drama gaslighting the audience whose main theme seemed to be “Woman Overreacts”.

This year was supposed to be about truth. The ugly truth of society, sometimes the ugly truths within ourselves. This year was supposed to be about justice, courage, and overcoming hardship. The New Yorker, a publication I admire, thinks this movie was a “comedy favorite” of 2020.

If this movie is a comedy then maybe I need a new sense of humor, because watching a woman shrink into herself rather than rise against the opinions of men in her life who do not truly see her, is neither comedic nor amusing.

‘On The Rocks’ is a lifeless portrayal of a woman in a marriage. The main character is Laura, a middle aged writer, wife, and mom of two. She is struggling to write, despite being paid an advance for her new book, because she is Worried About Her Husband’s Fidelity and Busy Being A Tired Mom. What kind of author is she? What is she writing? What is she passionate about? We never know.

Her husband Dean takes on the businessman trope of Working A Lot and Traveling For Work. He deals with vague buzzwords like clients and subscribers and meetings and conferences. Laura begins to think Dean is cheating on her, based on a mounting pile of evidence, and the movie is taken over by her father, Felix, who portrays an exact replica of a toxic man.

He admonishes Laura to “start thinking like a man” while showcasing his own destructive traits as he leads her down an intrusive sleuthing path.

They have such banter like, “The bangle [bracelet] is a reminder that women were once men’s property,” and “It’s human nature, males are forced to fight to dominate and to impregnate all females.”

Maybe it’s just me, but validating men who disregard women as a personality trait has become boring. The shock value is gone.

This boring detective duo ends up following Dean to catch him in the act. During their escapade, they are pulled over by the police for speeding and for having alcohol in the car.

Felix knows the police officer’s father, so once again nepotism, power, and privilege saves the rich guy. If we don’t need anything after 2020, it’s video footage of a White Man being treated like pals by the cops and let off (alive) with a warning.

Fast forward to the end of the movie: Dean isn’t cheating! He’s just been “really busy at work” and “wanted to impress” Laura with his late nights and overtime. The feigned emotional drama in this culminating scene is far-fetched and unconvincing. I kept hoping for a better ending, but the moral of the story is that she should not have overreacted and she should not have let her mind be swayed by her father’s controlling narrative.

Dean, at the end, is portrayed as a hard-working dad who is so in love with Laura that he has to put in extra time at work instead of helping out at home because he is The Man. Felix is portrayed as a charming yet savvy serial philanderer, whose past of cheating on Laura’s mom was justified because he no longer felt like the center of attention. Laura is portrayed as a sad, frumpy, jealous, boring woman who let her career suffer until she is back in a Happy Marriage. Once she knows her husband has been faithful, she can finally write again!

The entire film disappoints from start to finish, despite its intentional cast, and would have been more impactful left on the cutting room floor.

Especially after/during the #MeToo era, I thought it was clear we’ve had enough portrayals of misogynistic men to last us a lifetime. If Hollywood continues to choose to center projects on a “charming yet troubled” white man, at least include a message that’s useful. The dialogue is trite and tired. We need to be telling new stories that are actually believable and necessary.

The story of “my rich, well connected, and charming dad refuses to scrutinize his misogynistic behaviors while continuing to center everything around himself while willfully disregarding others” should have retired a generation ago.

Comedy? Where? Was it when the audience had to watch an uncomfortable Rashida Jones endure un-ending mansplaining and the chauvinistic behaviors of her father? He talks about what types of women men desire, and gets shockingly close to glorifying incestual thoughts and pedophilia. Laura waves off his ranting as a lot of “stories and theories,” even this juicy number:

“You know what’s interesting? Back when humans walked on all fours, it was the sight of the female haunches that excited them. So that when we finally stood up on two legs, it was the women with the rounded breasts that mirrored the haunches that were most exciting to the males. So, they made babies with them, and eventually, that shape evolved into what is our modern female.”

Gripping.

My stomach hurt — not from laughter, but from being subjected to this tirade of men’s victim mentalities especially after a year where Americans were dealing with their own megalomaniac abusing his power.

Using history to prove their tired points falls flat because we know they’re on the wrong side of history. Is this movie actually an ironic portrayal of the dark side of Hollywood and the subsequent family drama it allows? It could have been, but no.

Highlighting a negative on the basis of teaching a moral theme without actually addressing the problem itself only leaves the audience yearning for more substance.

Thanks for reading my review! As always feel free to leave a tip, anything is greatly appreciated. ~~roya~~