Anywhere But Here

Rating:
Summary: Like a tumblin' tumbleweed...
Review: Yet another mother-daughter road movie in the vein of Tumbleweeds! Why are they always driving through the Nevada desert on their way to California? Don't single moms ever drive through, say, New England, or maybe the Skyline Drive in Virginia? Or how about Oregon and Washington State? In any case, this episodic film maintains your interest well enough.


Rating:
Summary: My favorite movie... ever!
Review: This movie is the best movie that I have ever seen! Its my favorite movie and I watch it almost everyday. The way the mother and daughter end up connecting in the end is just amazing. ABSOLUTELY NO COMPARISON TO TUMBLEWEED... 110% BETTER! Anywhere But Here is a movie everyone must own!

Rating:
Summary: Mothers & Daughters
Review: After Natalie Portman's amazing performance in Zach Braff's Garden State, I had to see more of her work. In Anywhere But Here, she once again amazed me with her heartfelt and emotional performance. She is truly a wonderfully gifted actress, full of life and versatility, that manages to bring charm and innocence to any character she plays. I look forward to seeing more of her in the future.

Based on a novel by Mona Simpson, Anywhere But Here is an interesting character study about an eccentric mother and the unhappy daughter she is trying to make a star. Susan Sarandon is the perfect choice to play Portman's mother, an over-the-top, insecure woman trying to make it in Beverly Hills. She accompanies Portman well and brings life into an unlikeable woman.

Anyone who has ever been annoyed by or hated their mother so badly will be able to relate to this film. It's a universal topic and a very fun one to watch. The plot is formulaic and predictable, but the movie's interest is not in the plot, but in the brilliant performances. This is not a film for all tastes, but anyone who prefers characters over plot may want to give it a chance. I enjoyed it with my own mother.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant performances by Sarandon and Portman
Review: The mother-daughter bond, especially with an only child, is one of the strongest human bonds there is. Some say it's stronger than husband and wife. It tends to be intense and it almost always develops into a situation where neither side has the clear upper hand because both are vulnerable.

And they fight. Tooth and nail. And they love each other intensely. For the mother it is scary because everything is in the daughter and for the daughter, especially when the mother is divorced or single, as is the case here. For the daughter it can be a nightmare because the mother is the adult and has the power and is a total embarrassment. This is especially true when the mother is delusional or dysfunctional as is Adele August (Susan Sarandon).

The story from Mona Simpson's novel is familiar in plot and theme although the details here are unique and especially well done. Adele's judgment is more than suspect and she's careless with other people's feelings, and she's shallow and dresses funny. And she isn't completely aware of, nor has she sufficient respect for the needs and wants of her daughter, Ann (Natalie Portman). She, the mother, wants to leave behind the small town, Midwestern existence and embrace Hollywood and all things glamorous. Ann would rather stay in Bay City, Wisconsin with her friends and family. Mom buys a Mercedes and forces Ann to go with her to make a new life in Beverly Hills.

I thought Wayne Wang's direction was excellent. He used visual clues to introduce the scenes: shots of an still apartment, shots of part of a person, shots of the beach or the highway, etc., and then a focus on--almost always--Sarandon or Portman. And then at sometime, the camera backs away and we see the larger scene: the desert sand and scrub, the ocean and the sunrise, the other diners at the restaurant, the mourners at the funeral, the crossway over the freeway, and so on. The scene in which Adele is hiding under the covers from heartbreak, and Ann pulls them off, is shot from above because such an angle so beautifully reveals Adele's limbs pulled in close to her body as though in catatonia or in a return to the safety of the womb. Sometimes the sounds precede the shot as when Adele is in Bay City trying desperately to get in touch with the dentist in California who doesn't want her, and we hear her desperation before we see it in her face.

I also liked the way the film was cut. As soon as the point of the scene was made, we moved on to another scene, which is again introduced visually with just the right kind of lighting, giving us a moment or two to imagine what transpired in-between. However the real strength of the film is in the brilliant work by Sarandon and Portman.

Sarandon is deliberately annoying, flighty, self-delusive, and deeply vulnerable while Portman is powerful, sensitive, and one step ahead of us. Indeed Natalie Portman is one of the most gifted young talents in all of cinema. She absolutely commands the camera, and, as it stays on her face, she reveals to us a full set of emotions and responses, layered like things very deep. If she wants to she can become one of the great stars of the screen. She has the talent. I understand however that she is pursuing a career as a doctor. Whatever she does, one has the sense that she will do it very well.

A couple of irreverent questions for director Wayne Wang:

How did Ann's audition go? Did her projection of her mother's personality win her the part?

And, what is it that the man does in bed only with a woman he feels special about? Inquiring minds want to know (rather than make stupid guesses).

Anywhere But Here can be compared with some other dysfunctional mom and wise-beyond-her-years daughter films, for example, Mermaids (1990) with Cher and Winona Ryder, Postcards from the Edge (1990) with Shirley MacLaine and Meryl Streep, Mommie Dearest (1981) with Fay Dunaway and Diana Scarwid, Terms of Endearment (1983) with Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger, and some others I have forgotten.

For the record I would rate these in this order:

Terms of Endearment
Postcards from the Edge
Anywhere But Here
Mermaids
Mommie Dearest

At IMDb they are rated in the same order but with Anywhere But Here at the bottom. Too bad, but that allows me to say that this is very much an underrated film.

See it for both Susan Sarandon, who is as good or even better than she ever was--and that is very good indeed--and for Natalie Portman, who is stunning, and as an actress, mature beyond her years.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting characters and plot
Review: I think I saw this movie about two times.It's entertaining because the characters have depth. It is about a mother and daughter trying to find their place in the world. They move from Wisconsin to Beverly Hills. Ann,14, is upset about leaving home and doesn't like the idea of making new friends and leaving all her old ones. She is very independent from her mother and thinks she knows better. Adele, her mother, is very whimsical in the way she lives her life. They are constantly moving and Adele is always trying to brighten up the situation. She reminds me a lot of my mother. I can't exactly describe. I guess it's this overly optimistic feeling when everything is going wrong.