Anywhere But Here

Great acting, small story
One day I did a weird thing. I went to the cinema and watched this movie by myself. Some people found it strange that I, being a guy, would go see a real girl-movie alone, including the man in the ticket-office who looked really nonplussed and asked me if I really wanted only one ticket.

Well, I did, and I'm glad I did it.

Anywhere But Here is, exactly as its poster says: A movie about a mother who knows best and a daughter who knows better... And it's good.

The story is quite thin: Ann August (Natalie Portman) is a young girl whose single mother Adele (Susan Sarandon) hasn't quite lost her youthful lust for adventure. They move from bay City, Wisconsin to Beverly Hill where Adele hopes to find a better life. But she forgot to take her daughter's feelings into account...

As you might expect, there are lots of emotional outbreaks in this movie, but it never becomes too much. Also, it's refreshingly devoid of sentimentalism and happy-go-lucky lovestories, which makes...

Superb acting by Portman and Surrandon make this film
A provocative, lonely single mother (Susan Surrandon) decides to risk it all and take her teen daughter (Natalie Portman) to Beverly Hills. Her choice causes friction between mother (Adele) and daughter (Ann) and their family back home in smalltown Wisconnsin.

Ann has to struggle with a mother she loves and hates at the same time and to try to survive a new environment, being away from her beloved cousins back home and her mother's whims.

They live from apartment to apartment with hardly two sticks of furniture trying to sustain an illusion of success in Beverly HIlls to the family back home.

The story tests the bonds of mother and daughter who are constantly at odds, but also the only true support they each have. The mother wants to hold on to her daughter and the daughter wants to be "anywhere but here."

A number of scenes will evoke tears from even the most poker-faced movie-goers. The acting is the most beautiful thing about this film. It could have...

Brilliant performances by Sarandon and Portman
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...

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