I get it, "On the Rocks," because their marriage is in peril, or maybe it's her relationship with her father, and they drink alcohol every time they go out (although, disappointingly, oft without ice). Plus, a woman is overheard in one scene describing to Bill Murray's art-dealer dad an artwork that's just rocks. As one might be able to tell from some of my review titles, I don't care a little for such pun-gent wordplay. I care a lot. As for the picture itself, it's perhaps tastelessly dry, but it's served neat in the plotting.
Besides a frugal hour-and-a-half runtime, the meta-construction of the narrative is simple and subtle. Rashida Jones plays the writer of the story within the story. She's got writer's block and doesn't know what to make of the mystery of her husband's suspected infidelity. So, she teams up with her father (Murray) who deals in art. It's a clever allusion from a writer-director, Sofia Coppola, whose father, Francis Ford Coppola, is a well-known filmmaker, too. Who cares if the husband is actually cheating or not--this isn't some Hitchcockian suspense thriller where we're trying to figure out whether Cary Grant is going to murder Joan Fontaine. It's as though the morality of monogamy is at play here precisely because it's punishingly monotonous. It doesn't matter, so look for what does matter: the semi-autobiographical creative process as drawn from life and the paternal bond. It's the story of the story that the daughter and dad construct from the boring upper-class family and working life that's of interest--and not so much the bumbling detective work of investigating infidelity, but the mere piecing together of a potential reality or constructed fiction. Double meanings--like the title.
Other than a story about storytelling, there's not much going on here as far as I can tell. The casting, however, might be interesting. When Murray was cast in Coppola's prior "Lost in Translation" (2003), it merely seemed part of the actor's turn towards a few more dramatic or serious works at the time--occurring as it did when he was also starring in Wes Anderson dramedies, "Broken Flowers" (2005) and other such things to distinguish him from a career that also includes voicing Garfield. But, in "On the Rocks," we get quite a bit of comedic talent for a movie that's largely a light drama. Jones, best known for TV sitcoms "The Office," "Parks & Rec," "Angie Tribeca" and "#blackAF," is a master of playing off of zany characters, to which one may add Murray's playboy pops here. Marlon Wayans, although he's fine and the part rather demands it, seems wasted in the humorless husband role with a boring job at some boring tech startup. There's even one of Jones's ole co-stars from "Parks & Rec," Jenny Slate, to play a bit part of a fellow mother who drones on about herself as they wait to pick up their kids at school. Maybe this casting of comedians in dramatic roles in a dramedy also plays into the doubled construction. Regardless, they do a fine job--Murray especially in the most fun part and who received quite a bit of recognition on the awards circuit for it.
Besides a frugal hour-and-a-half runtime, the meta-construction of the narrative is simple and subtle. Rashida Jones plays the writer of the story within the story. She's got writer's block and doesn't know what to make of the mystery of her husband's suspected infidelity. So, she teams up with her father (Murray) who deals in art. It's a clever allusion from a writer-director, Sofia Coppola, whose father, Francis Ford Coppola, is a well-known filmmaker, too. Who cares if the husband is actually cheating or not--this isn't some Hitchcockian suspense thriller where we're trying to figure out whether Cary Grant is going to murder Joan Fontaine. It's as though the morality of monogamy is at play here precisely because it's punishingly monotonous. It doesn't matter, so look for what does matter: the semi-autobiographical creative process as drawn from life and the paternal bond. It's the story of the story that the daughter and dad construct from the boring upper-class family and working life that's of interest--and not so much the bumbling detective work of investigating infidelity, but the mere piecing together of a potential reality or constructed fiction. Double meanings--like the title.
Other than a story about storytelling, there's not much going on here as far as I can tell. The casting, however, might be interesting. When Murray was cast in Coppola's prior "Lost in Translation" (2003), it merely seemed part of the actor's turn towards a few more dramatic or serious works at the time--occurring as it did when he was also starring in Wes Anderson dramedies, "Broken Flowers" (2005) and other such things to distinguish him from a career that also includes voicing Garfield. But, in "On the Rocks," we get quite a bit of comedic talent for a movie that's largely a light drama. Jones, best known for TV sitcoms "The Office," "Parks & Rec," "Angie Tribeca" and "#blackAF," is a master of playing off of zany characters, to which one may add Murray's playboy pops here. Marlon Wayans, although he's fine and the part rather demands it, seems wasted in the humorless husband role with a boring job at some boring tech startup. There's even one of Jones's ole co-stars from "Parks & Rec," Jenny Slate, to play a bit part of a fellow mother who drones on about herself as they wait to pick up their kids at school. Maybe this casting of comedians in dramatic roles in a dramedy also plays into the doubled construction. Regardless, they do a fine job--Murray especially in the most fun part and who received quite a bit of recognition on the awards circuit for it.