Dissolute Hollywood star Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff) bonds with his 11-year-old daughter Cleo (Elle Fanning) in a scene from Sofia Coppola's drama Somewhere. (Alliance Films)

Sofia Coppola’s latest film, the Golden Lion-winning Somewhere, begins with a shot of a Ferrari driving in circles in the middle of the California desert. The car whips in and out of view, the only sound coming from its engine, which periodically revs up, then recedes again.

Sofia Coppola isn’t that interested in plot or final destinations, devoting herself to capturing the moods of her melancholy central character.

How you feel about that opening will probably determine your reaction to the rest of Somewhere. As the film’s vague, searching title suggests, Coppola isn’t that interested in plot or final destinations, and devotes herself to capturing the moods of her melancholy central character, who spends his time driving in literal and figurative circles.

Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff) is an actor in the midst of promoting his latest movie, Berlin Agenda. When he isn’t putting in obligatory appearances at press junkets, Johnny is holed up at the famed Chateau Marmont hotel in West Hollywood, lunching on the patio by day and partying with fawning youngsters he barely knows by night. He’s a star, but the faint bloating in his face and the broken wrist he acquired from a drunken fall suggest someone who’s been indulging himself for far too long.

In the film’s near-wordless first section, Johnny glides past the chic models in the hotel’s hallways like a ghost. Living off room service, numbed on pills and free to order twin strippers to his room on command, he might have everything, but his frequent pacing on the balcony suggests he’s every bit as lonely and trapped as the main character in Coppola’s last film, Marie Antoinette.

When next we see Johnny, he’s in a studio makeup chair, his face obscured behind mounds of latex-mold goop. His laboured breathing makes it clear something has to give. In a detail not lost on Johnny or the audience, the grotesque old-man mask that is the end result of this fitting doesn’t look that different from the actor’s face when he wakes at the Chateau Marmont each morning.

This extended set-up places so much emphasis on the ennui of our pampered hero, it runs the risk of alienating the audience. Coppola’s detractors claim her movies are pretty, vapid baubles about the problems of the rich and famous. The criticism is irksome – Coppola is privileged, but you can’t fault her for writing about what she knows. Particularly when that knowledge results in scenes as scathing and funny as the moment at a press conference where a journalist dares to ask the ridiculous question, “Who is Johnny Marco?”

Much of Coppola’s insider’s view was undoubtedly gleaned from growing up with a famous filmmaker father. Somewhere hits its stride when Johnny’s ex-wife arrives and promptly dumps an 11-year-old daughter, Cleo (Elle Fanning), in his lap. As the self-absorbed actor is tasked with caring for a mysterious preteen creature he barely knows, Somewhere shifts gears, gradually morphing into a moving father-daughter story.

What transpires between Johnny and Cleo bears a strong resemblance to Coppola’s 2003 film Lost in Translation, complete with late-night calls to room service, high jinks in hotel corridors and a disorienting whirlwind trip to Milan that involves a bizarre Italian awards show. But Coppola digs far deeper here than in the Bill Murray-Scarlett Johansson buddy movie, and what surprised me about Somewhere was how affecting it becomes.

Johnny knows nothing about parenting, and relates to his daughter in the only way he knows how – through performance. Whether they’re playing Guitar Hero or swimming in the hotel pool, Johnny is constantly evaluating Cleo and egging her on with comments like, “How about the handstand?” Seeing her attempts to please him provides many of Somewhere’s most touching moments, particularly in a scene at an ice rink. She shoots her skating routine in such a way that the delicate flutter of the ruffles on Cleo's costume communicates her desire to forge a connection with her dad. The description might sound precious, but the scene choked me up.

Coppola’s strength lies in her ability to express emotions and moods visually, and she’s matched by her two leads, who acquit themselves well with minimal dialogue. Dorff’s best scenes come early: while watching two strippers pole dance in his room, for example, he subtly registers a number of emotions – from stoned amusement to utter boredom – on his weary face.

But Elle Fanning emerges as the true star of Somewhere. Like a young Jodie Foster, she possesses a very knowing face, and uses it to suggest that Cleo has already seen far more than most kids her age. Early on in her dealings with Johnny, Cleo assumes the parental role, cooking him eggs Benedict and instructing him in the items she needs to pack for summer camp. She’s so self-sufficient it’s easy to forget she still needs her father – a yearning that Fanning makes instantly apparent in the nonplussed reaction shot she registers when one of Johnny’s one-night stands appears at breakfast.

Somewhere is framed as Johnny’s story, but it is ultimately this observant youngster’s journey that proves most compelling. Barely a teen, Fanning intuits what Coppola’s going for in Somewhere, and demonstrates a keen awareness that the most momentous changes are sometimes the quietest. Like her director, Fanning isn’t all that interested in getting to somewhere. She’s more fascinated by the small wonders she discovers along the way.

Somewhere opens Jan. 7.

Lee Ferguson writes about the arts for CBC News.