i must have seen a different film!!

How sad is this?

Crappy film

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Anywhere but Here (1999): Dir: Wayne Wang / Cast: Natalie Portman, Susan Sarandon, Hart Bochner, Shawn Hatosy, Eileen Ryan: Undemanding tripe suggesting one's place in life, and hopefully that place isn't anywhere where this film can be seen. It is about a mother and daughter with different dreams and desires. Susan Sarandon packs up her daughter and moves to Beverly Hills California where she hopes to begin teaching and establish her daughter as an actress. Her daughter resents this and feels pressured. The premise isn't much and the conclusion leaves much to be desired but director Wayne Wang gives a detailed description of relationships that threaten to tear apart at the seams because the thread is too strong, much like the screenplay does, ever so rapidly. Story is sidetracked with unnecessary subplots such as the new man in Sarandon's life or the cousin back home that dies. Sarandon plays the mother who is seeking new direction and wishes not to travel it alone. Natalie Portman struggles to adjust to her mother's demands. Both actresses are far too talent for such predictable roles with little depth. Lame supporting roles by Hart Bochner and Shawn Hatosy that do little if anything to enhance this drivel. Themes regards trusting others and growth and responsibility but viewers will likely wish to be anywhere but here. Score: 4 / 10

This movie was a great one. Their relationship was a bit rocky, but in the end, Ann realized what greatness her mother really had. Susan Sarandon and Natalie Portman were the right actresses for the job. :) They really portrayed a real "family". Not this fairy-tale "wish that was my family" kind of family. They were actually like today's families...with extreme relativity with the moving and mother-daughter struggles and diversity. I loved it...especially the ending when they realized how much both of them meant to each other. It made me wanna grab my mom!!! (who was sitting right beside me at the time...so i actually did...haha!)

"Anywhere But Here" is a movie that could have worked a lot better if the mother and daughter had stopped fighting with another earlier and developed more of friendship to give it a better lead up to the end.I must say the acting in "Anywhere But Here" was good from Susan Sarandon and Natalie Portman. After all, they couldn't help that the writer skipped a few important steps while writing the screenplay.I'm glad to have been witness to a movie that had a believable plot, which surrounded the struggles a mother and daughter go through. I think this was unique because it has been awhile since I've seen this type of plot on screen as long as I have gone to the movies.I would be hesitant to recommend this movie based on anything other than plot.

(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.