Jones is Laura, a stalled writer, tired mother, and unloved wife, whose husband, Dean (Marlon Wayans), seems to always be on business travels, as he manages his tech startup. Laura’s sleepwalking through life gets a burst of sudden energy when her womanizing father, Felix (Bill Murray), comes knocking at the door and starts filling her head with paranoid thoughts that her husband may be cheating on her with his assistant Fiona (Jessica Henwick). Felix is a retired art dealer with his own chauffeur, who assumes the worst of all men because, well, he’s been no slouch in the cheating department over the decades. Felix is convinced that Dean is cheating, and as the father-daughter duo team up to spy on the suspected husband, “On the Rocks” turns into the kind of sly screwball comedy that fits perfectly with Murray’s deadpan goofball acting stylings. Wait until you see Felix and Laura cruising down nighttime Manhattan and being stopped by police, only for Felix to ingeniously get away without a ticket. It’s a testament to Murray’s talents that you can’t see anyone else pulling off this role. Coppola clearly wrote it for him. Ditto Jones, an underrated actress who finally gets the kind of role here that her talents deserve. The film is filled with DP Philippe Le Sourd’s glowingly greyish frames, which are accentuated by the atmospheric electro soundtrack, courtesy of indie rock band Phoenix. Coppola, who also wrote the screenplay, has a blast letting her guard down and making a movie that isn’t as serious as the rest of her filmography — this might just be the most inconsequential film she has ever directed, a little ditty that relies heavily on the charms of Bill Murray and turns out to be a nice little pandemic-era diversion. [B-] Contribute Hire me
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