THIS MUST BE THE PLACE: Paolo Sorrentino’s Weird Trip

There are such films that are difficult to write about. This is probably because they are neither outstanding nor bad, but – I cannot find a better word – summery, lacking blows of emotional heat and gusts of the cold of total indifference. Such is precisely Paolo Sorrentino’s film, This Must Be the Place.

In its context, discussion focused mainly on Sean Penn and his performance. In a way, that is not surprising, as the actor plays an aging rock star who has mentally stopped at the stage of his youthful, melancholic compositions. The same look for years, a combination of drag queen and French mime, the same mood oscillating between extreme apathy and bursts of helpless anger, and the same life, among the walls of an overwhelming residence, alongside his beloved wife, who simultaneously acts as caretaker and friend.

In a word – stagnation/idleness. Suddenly Cheyenne’s father dies, and a journey begins. What is its purpose? It seems to be captured in the title. The goal is THAT place, because somewhere, beyond the horizon or, somewhat paradoxically, within it – quite near, that special place must exist.

It turns out that Cheyenne’s father was a man who survived Auschwitz and devoted his entire post-camp life to tracking the Nazi who persecuted him during the hell of war. Specialized institutions dealing with the pursuit of war criminals refused him assistance because his officer was only a minor player – lacking a name that would electrify the sensationalist media.

Cheyenne decides to complete his father’s work because of… precisely – guilt (he had not spoken to his father for years), a desire to draw closer to his deceased loved one, or perhaps a desire to find himself? It is ambiguous. It seems that Cheyenne himself does not fully understand the impulse that pushed him to make this particular decision.

From the description, one might infer that the second part of the film, due to the investigative thread, would negate the poetics of idleness encountered by the viewer after the opening credits. However, this is a false impression; Sorrentino consistently continues the narrative style proposed from the first minutes of the film. Even though Cheyenne moves, searches, he is in fact still stuck in a place that is certainly not THE one referred to in the title (This Must Be the Place). Penn’s character remains in the wrong point on the map, both geographically and mentally-emotionally.

Nevertheless, returning closer to the first/literal layer of the script – what kind of idea is it for a fading rock star, struggling with his life, to track a German war criminal connected with the Auschwitz extermination? The fact is, the combination is rather perverse, but – after a moment’s reflection – what is so strange about it? In media attempts to seek controversy here, the stereotype of the star as a ready-made product persists, a product that can only have clearly defined (of course, by the media themselves) problems.

If Cheyenne had drowned his sorrows in a sea of vodka and whiskey, strumming an acoustic guitar alone or tried to fill the void with drugs and wild parties, it would have been normal, as it should be.

When the star turns out to be a human being, with roots, it becomes strange. And indeed, This Must Be the Place is definitely a strange film, yet any trace of controversy is absent. It is simply another story about a man seeking himself, a man trying to find his true face beneath a façade built of powder, lipstick, and sad makeup.

Therefore, one should not be surprised by distributors, who at one time emphasize the already mentioned unusual combination of rock, drag queen, and the Holocaust, and at another time highlight the comedic qualities of the film with Sean Penn (after all, it is rather hard to sell another story about life). They are certainly clear hyperboles. 

This Must Be the Place is nothing other than another bittersweet story about being and searching. A story, though presented in a rather eccentric way (hence the mentioned strangeness), quite simple and familiar to us for many years. Is this really what life looks like, or – on the other hand – do we want it to look like this, which is why we continue to construct such scenarios? Something to reflect on.