The poster art for On the Rocks bears more than a passing resemblance to a moment from Sofia Coppola and Bill Murray’s hit from yesteryear, Lost in Translation. Surely they weren’t trying for a repeat May/December romance this time between Murray and Rashida Jones? Initial relief (the two play father and daughter) is quickly felled by dad’s extra-pervy asides about people mistaking his daughter for his date. Felix (Murray) is a raconteur with money to spare, a playboy with a big personality who is quick to flirt with anything in a skirt and charming to the point where he can talk himself out of a speeding ticket. When his daughter Laura (Jones) suggests that her husband Dean (Marlon Wayans) might be carrying on an affair with his account manager, bored Felix, looking for a way to get back into her life, decides to play detective. What begins with dad encouraging Laura to go through her husband’s texts ends up with the two tailing Dean on what may or may not be a Mexican business trip. Fans of characters one loves to hate will find great pleasure in Murray’s disagreeableness. He has played unappealing types in the past, but none more smugly repellent than Felix. And I haven’t liked one of Coppola’s films this much since Lost in Translation. It’s her most mature work to date, and Felix her most complex creation. (One wonders how daddy Francis felt after seeing the picture.) The performances are superb at all levels; how wonderful it was to see Barbara Bain as Laura’s crusty grandmother, the first to sow seeds of suspicion. The film begins to totter only when the otherwise dependable Jenny Slate is wasted as the galpal Laura never has any time for. (2020) — Scott Marks
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