Movie Monday: On the Rocks

Book By Book

Saturday evening, my husband and I watched On the Rocks, a movie on Apple TV starring Bill Murray and Rashida Jones. We both enjoyed this warm, funny film about marriage and a father-daughter relationship.

Laura, played by Rashida Jones, is a busy mother of two in New York City, struggling to juggle everything at once, including a writing career. She’s married to Dean, played by Marlon Wayans, a successful entrepreneur who works long hours and is a devoted dad. Laura’s father, Felix, played by Bill Murray, comes into town to visit. He’s a perennial ladies’ man, full of charm, who flirts shamelessly with every woman he sees. Over drinks, Laura confides that she feels harried and unseen and sometimes wonders if Dean is tempted to cheat with his gorgeous business partner. Felix latches onto that theory (you can hear bits of that conversation in the trailer below), certain that Dean is cheating and launches a spy campaign to help Laura find out for sure. Felix is way too excited about the whole prospect, but Laura’s so worried that she goes along with him, even when his antics veer into the obsessive. The two of them dash all over the city together, plotting over martinis in tony hotel bars and even following Dean and his colleagues out at a business dinner. Along the way, father and daughter spend lots of time together, and the viewer is left to wonder: Is he cheating? Or isn’t he?

With Bill Murray at the heart of this movie, you know there are lots of laughs, but there’s also plenty of warmth, especially in the imperfect father-daughter relationship at the center of the story (made me miss spending time with my dad!). The cast is great, with the focus on Murray and Jones, and the writing is excellent. Oh, and the movie was written and directed by Sofia Coppola, Hollywood royalty! The setting, mostly in New York, is a lot of fun, too, with Felix preferring classic New York hot spots and taking Laura out for lots of dinners and drinks, as they plot their next move. My husband and I both enjoyed this fun movie very much.

If you are a fan of Bill Murray, another great movie of his is St. Vincent, where he plays a grumpy old man roped into babysitting his neighbor’s son: lots of laughs and a few tears, too (my review at the link). St. Vincent is available free on IMdB, which you can access through this link.

On the Rocks is currently available exclusively on Apple TV (which you get free for a year with purchase of any Apple device).