On the Rocks Parent Guide

Life is going well for Laura (Rashida Jones) and her husband Dean (Marlon Wayans) – even if things are a little hectic. Laura recently signed a deal with a publisher for a book she has yet to finish, Dean’s company is picking up a record number of new clients, and they have small children who need a lot of attention. But as Dean starts to spend more time at work, and more time on business trips, Laura begins to get suspicious. A call to her eccentric playboy art-dealing father Felix (Bill Murray) does nothing to allay her fears, and only reinforces her concern that Dean might be having an affair with his attractive young assistant Fiona (Jessica Henwick). Determined to help, Felix whisks Laura away on a whirlwind adventure to get to the root of the problem, no matter how far that takes them.

I was expecting the best part of this movie to be Bill Murray. The character he plays, Felix, is an unrelenting charmer, a wealthy art-dealer who spends his time travelling the world and trying to seduce every woman he sees. I was partially right, in that Murray’s typical manic charm is as entertaining as ever – but Rashida Jones offers a wonderful straight-man for him to play off of. More importantly, her own serious performance balances the movie out and is a good reminder of the serious personal consequences of this bizarre bit of father-daughter bonding. Even Murray manages to sober up and deliver some emotional scenes.

This is one of the softest R-ratings I’ve seen lately. All of the extreme profanity comes at the very beginning of the film in the form of a segment of a Chris Rock stand-up comedy clip. If you skip that ten-second clip, then what’s left is remarkably tame. The only other major content concern is going to be Felix’s problematic opinions about monogamy, women, and the nature of sexual relationships. Even then, none of that dialogue is terribly explicit and there is no on-screen activity.

This movie is funnier and more light-hearted than some of director Sofia Coppola’s other work, so personal fans of hers might be disappointed if they’re looking for a darker or more serious film. On the Rocks strikes a delicate balance between serious subject matter and Bill Murray’s off-the-wall charm – a difficult tightrope to be sure, but one the film manages to walk for the entirety of its runtime. Movies about suspected adultery may not be a great date night option, but this is a surprisingly heartfelt little feature about the strained relationship between parents and children, and how people move on.