Main cast: Rashida Jones (Laura Keane), Bill Murray (Felix Keane), Marlon Wayans (Dean), and Jessica Henwick (Fiona Saunders)
Director: Sofia Coppola

Well, everyone needs to wallow in their happier side once in a while, so it may not be surprising that Sofia Coppola would direct On the Rocks, probably the closest she will ever get to a romantic comedy.

Laura and Dean are a happily married couple, or so Laura would like to believe. She is a full time author, predictably stuck with writer’s block just like every author in a movie of this sort, but worse, she suspects that Dean is having an affair with his colleague, Fiona. Her womanizing, charming father Felix proposes that they check up on Dean, without his knowledge of course, to find out the truth. She is reluctant to, at first, but eventually her paranoia leads her to agree. Wacky stuff results.

Well, this movie certainly takes pains to ensure that the cast is multiracial, which is nice, but the result is still what I would call a low investment effort. What I mean is that there is nothing at risk here. There is no need to get invested in Laura’s or Dean’s issues because whatever happens will have little to no impact to their lives.

You see, these people are freaking loaded. The movie is dripping with opulence, whether it’s Felix’s sports car to all the lovely things Dean showers on Laura. The penultimate moment of this movie, one meant to make me sigh and go “Aww!”, mind you, is Linda taking off her vintage watch to put on a Cartier one.

With all this in mind, who cares about these people’s drama? Oh no, Felix gets a ticket from a cop. Well, he’s rich and he’s white, so I doubt he’d have much to be worried. Oh no, so the black husband looks to be playing up to the stereotype of a cheating ho-bag? Am I supposed to believe that Laura will have anything to worry other than maybe having to pay spousal support to Dean in the event of a divorce?

This movie offers some neat resolutions to everyone’s minor little angst, and while under other circumstances I’d say they may be too neat, in this instance these people are already so comfy in their lives, that they come off like dreaming up silly little problems just because they are so bored of having nothing else in life to worry about.

The cast is on the most part fine, although the main attraction Bill Murray is just playing Bill Murray again. Thanks to this, the movie is watchable in a “play it in the background” manner. Still, these characters’ issues feel so trivial and even banal, and they face little consequence should they fail in any way to resolve these issues. I’m hard pressed to care as to what will happen to these people because of this. File this one under: “Bored, wealthy people not knowing what to do with themselves.”