SnoopyStyle
Adele August (Susan Sarandon) is the flighty mother to exasperated 14 year old Ann (Natalie Portman). Ann actually like her stepfather Ted but Adele leaves her boring husband in Wisconsin for the bright sunshine of Beverly Hills. Adele gets a job at a rundown school and spends their money frivolously. Ann can't wait to leave her mother. There's also a cop who has two pivotal scenes where he comes in with just the right advice.Sarandon is playing a manic mother character. Portman is lovely and a frustrated teenager. These are good building blocks for some family drama. However the movie doesn't really build anything compelling with these amazing pieces. The plot, it there is one, is a random series of aimless snippets. Their story goes nowhere for a long stretches of this movie. It's the same situation over and over again. Nevertheless, there are those two beautiful building blocks at the end of the day. It probably needs a third and some dramatic construction.
tieman64
Directed by Wayne Wang, "Anywhere But Here" stars Susan Sarandon as Adele August, a delusional woman who leaves small-town Wisconsin for the fancy suburbs of Beverly Hills. Tired of a loveless marriage, and the inanities of small-town America, Adele hopes to find wealth, fame and love. Joining Adele is Ann (Natalie Portman), Adele's teenage daughter. Ann thinks Adele is nuts."Anywhere But Here" contrasts the mopey Ann with the relentlessly upbeat Adele. One wants to be in Beverly Hills, the other doesn't. One believes that fortunes are around the corner, the other just wants to return to Wisconsin. As the film progresses Adele's neuroses become more pronounced, become a form of abusive parenting, though we're always aware that Adele – at least on some level – intends for her actions to benefit poor Ann. Adele may be a narcissistic train-wreck, but a part of her genuinely believes that she is acting in her daughter's best interests."That summer I turned seventeen, and started planning my escape," Ann tells us early in the film. This notion of "escape" becomes the film's chief motif. Both mother and daughter are desperate to find greener pastures, but whether or not these pastures exist is left unresolved.Wang, incidentally, typically alternates between personal projects and anonymously directed, Hollywood trash. "Anywhere But Here" is one of his better mainstream pictures, thanks largely to Portman and Sarandon, who convey well a difficult blend of fragility and strength.8/10 – See "Scarecrow" (1973) and "Margaret" (2011).
Dennis Littrell
(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon.)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 DearestHere 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.
vvanpo
When I happened upon this film, I couldn't help but compare Natalie Portman's character here with her character in "Heat". Both are struggling with the vagaries of life. The fathers for both are jerks. The mothers pose challenges from the opposite ends of the spectrum. In "Heat", Mom is on her last nerve and not there for the daughter. In "Anywhere But Here", Mom (Susan Sarandon) is all nerves and constantly there for the daughter, much to the daughter's annoyance. Mom leaves small town Bay City Wisconsin for the bright lights of L.A. to pursue the dream of Daughter's acting career of which Daughter wants no part.The big difference between the two roles in the daughter's level of maturity. Natalie was but a girl in "Heat" while she is a young lady in "Anywhere But Here", more mature than her mother. Ms. Portman does a fine job of portraying a character undergoing changes as she takes on more responsibility.One surprise for me was this movie came out after Ms. Portman portrayed Padme in the "Star Wars" episode. "Anywhere But Here" seemed that much of a segue for the evolution of Natalie Portman's characters' battle with life.
