anywhere

Anywhere But Here

Susan Sarandon and Natalie Portman play mother and daughter in Anywhere But Here, a nice little excursion into the familiar country of dysfunctional family relationships. It is not particularly brilliant, or very original, but it will do for two hours.

As the film begins, Sarandon hauls her fourteen-year-old daughter off with her from Wisconsin to the supposedly better life of Beverly Hills, California. Naturally, tension erupts, as Portman understandably has a fit over being torn from her familiar life with her friends, her family, and most notably her stepdad, whom Sarandon left, apparently because, as an ice-skating instructor, he's just not exciting enough for her. Sarandon, however, will have none of her complaints, as she insists that this change can only be good; instead of being stuck in some dead-end town where young women can only stare at the trucks driving past all day, they can start a new life in a successful town.

Sarandon's character is the eternal optimist; her often vain attempts to boost Portman's hopes are like a broken record, but, occasionally, things seem to go on the right track. Sarandon gets a job at an elementary school, while Portman gets to attend a school in what is considered the best public school system in America. But with those successes also come disappointments, as the bills pile up, and the living conditions aren't so hot.

It doesn't help that Sarandon is too enamoured of the potential of a high-end lifestyle to keep her mind on those more practical things; she will often try to cheer her daughter up by taking her to a fancy restaurant, and, on the beach, she has her eye on some of the more studly of the male species, and even manages to pick up one of them. There is also a sequence where they crash an open house on the more ritzy part of town, on Sarandon's fib that she is married to a cardiologist. After a while, however, things get a bit more rough, as the daughter feels even more suffocated, while the mother tries her damnedest to keep her daughter from abandoning her.

This is a nice little film, but, during the movie, you will most likely feel that this is basically a watered-down, glitzy version of Tumbleweeds, starring Janet McTeer. That movie was also about a mother and daughter moving from place to place, trying to make ends meet. But that film was far more frank about the mother's emotional immaturity and low self-esteem, as well as about the girl's own potential to truly make something of herself, and therefore not emulating her mother. In Tumbleweeds, the mother constantly met and stayed with the wrong guys, because she was too busy looking for the stereotypical macho "provider" that she failed to notice that all of these guys were also insecure losers. She also was clearly too selfish to see that the daughter, who obviously has much potential, was truly in a bad environment. The film also wasn't as melodramatic as Anywhere But Here - the mother and daughter are not always at each other's throats; in fact, they get along quite well. It is just that the daughter soon comes to realize that everything is not as right as her mother - also the eternal optimist - tries to make it sound.

Sarandon's mother, however, is not really seen as troublesome, but merely colourful, and not really colourful enough. Her only real problem is not being able to let go of her daughter. Sure, we see her failed relationship with the guy from the beach, we see her own problems with the folks back home, and so on, but all of these themes are dealt with merely as colour. The story does not really explore these issues in a way which adds depth to the character.

Portman's character is also not explored with too much depth. She feels helpless, of course; she's still a minor, and under the control of her mother. But she does not seem to know who she is; she wants to be an actress, and also to go to an East Coast college, but in both cases she is both dissuaded and persuaded again by her mother to go after these dreams. Portman herself never seems solidly convinced of any one thing. The two women are very entertaining, but they seem like Hollywood-ized versions of mother and daughter, while the two in Tumbleweeds really did act like they were mother and daughter, and were much stronger characters.

Sarandon doesn't seem to have aged one bit in the past while. She is still very much the same woman from White Palace (1990) - a woman with a mature sexuality, and a quirky charm. Portman is also entertaining too, although she is much more melodramatic, as about every second scene involves an opening of the tear ducts. Overall, Anywhere But Here is a good little movie, for those who want to see melodrama as performed by two fine actresses. I had no problem in viewing it, but, for an excellent drama about the same issues, it would be best to watch Tumbleweeds after this.

Rating: ***

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