First of all, I want to say that I agree that this was not one of Sophia Coppola's better works.

To answer your question, yes, I do think it's possible. My example is The Great Gatsby (Directed by Jack Clayton), one of the best film adaptations of a novel I have ever seen, and part of the theme (though admittedly not the entire theme) is shallowness.

I am a huge fan of indie films that focus on the social experience. But when creating such a story, especially on film, one has to remember that social experience is born of tangible experience. what I mean is that although dialogue (or lack thereof) can drive the artistic worth of a story, there still needs to be a plot. Something still needs to happen, otherwise the characters fall into meaninglessness, there's no reason to watch a movie played by characters without depth or meaning, even if said characters sometimes make a witty remark or interesting gesture. And this is exactly where Coppola went wrong. I understand that she wanted to portray a realistic fluidity. In real life, the father and daughter often won't clarify there thoughts and feelings, and the daughter does just go off to camp, just as distressed as ever.

But we don't go to movies to watch other people play out the continual stress that we must already experience in real-life. We find comfort in a suspenseful beginning, tense middle, and satisfying end. This is where Coppola missed the mark.

I will say, though, that the aesthetics and music was fantastic. Sometimes its worth seeing a bad movie for the sake of seeing art that literally moves.