Movie Review: On The Rocks Tenderly Embraces Family History
Sofia Coppola’s On The Rocks hit me right in the feels because it approaches the common theme of cheating from a new standpoint; the daughter of a notorious cheater. There is nothing like having a dad that slept with half of Mother Earth to make you question whether monogamy is possible. Out October 23 on Apple TV+, Bill Murray and Rashida Jones headline a comedy that feels simple and raw in its very real drama; our parents’ relationships do define how we see our own relationships.
Rashida Jones plays Laura; a mother of two, tipping into her late thirties, and suffering from writer’s block. She is feeling the humdrum of her life, which makes her wonder if her increasingly working husband, Marlon Wayans as Dean, is also growing bored. With his business trips and night meetings becoming more common, she starts to feel like he is having an affair. After all, her own father, Bill Murray’s Felix, would use the same “reasons” to cheat on her mom. Thus, who better to help her figure out if Dean is cheating than her cheating father.
On The Rocks | Official Trailer HD | A24 & Apple TV+
Bill Murray is so charming as Felix, and 100% embodies a womanizer. He captures the cool, casual charisma and adventurousness of a man that has no problem taking what he wants, even if a woman’s broken heart is left behind. The problem is he underestimates how much seeing her mother’s heartbreak left Laura heartbroken, as well. As the film progresses from the adorable laughs of seeing a father-daughter pair become a detective duo splashing across NYC, it lands into some very good, refreshing nuances on how men’s cheating really does affect their children.
Murray’s Felix genuinely thought he was cheating on his wife, with no impact on his daughter. Yet, part of Laura’s inability to confront Dean’s potential cheating is that she doesn’t know if her suspicions stem from the disappointment of never having a “family” because your dad thought he was Casanova reincarnated. While Felix wants to grow closer to his daughter, Laura has a family of her own, but she can’t help but feel it will, suddenly, crumble because of the same reason her childhood did. To be fair, if my man gave me a kitchen appliance for my birthday, I, too, would think he is cheating and the other woman got diamonds.
On the Rocks Q&A with Sofia Coppola, Bill Murray, Rashida Jones & Marlon Wayans | NYFF58
On The Rocks is similar to Ted Lasso in that you enter the film expecting laugh-out-loud comedy, especially since it has Rashida Jones and Bill Murray as its leads. While both are fantastic in their roles, it is a surprisingly quiet, relaxed film. It neither tries to be funny or dramatic, but instead approaches the love and sadness born from having a great dad that never understood how he was a “husband” did impact his kid. Seeing Felix realize this is super powerful, and wraps the film in a subtle, warm tenderness that makes you lived with the fact that it was not the comedy you expected, but it was a good movie.
