Anywhere But Here

1999

Comedy / Drama

10
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 54% · 88 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 54% · 25K ratings
IMDb Rating 6.2/10 10 19356 19.4K

dream dreams beverly hills mother daughter relationship

Plot summary

Single mother Adele August is bad with money, and even worse when it comes to making decisions. Her straight-laced daughter, Ann, is a successful high school student with Ivy League aspirations. When Adele decides to pack up and move the two of them from the Midwest to Beverly Hills, Calif., to pursue her dreams of Hollywood success, Ann grows frustrated with her mother's irresponsible and impulsive ways.

Director

Wayne Wang Photo
Wayne Wang

Top cast

Ashley Johnson Photo
Ashley Johnson as Sarah
Natalie Portman Photo
Natalie Portman as Ann August
Jay Harrington Photo
Jay Harrington as Waiter
Susan Sarandon Photo
Susan Sarandon as Adele August
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
1.02 GB
1280*550
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 53 min
Seeds 3
2.1 GB
1920*824
English 5.1
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 53 min
Seeds 9

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by bh_tafe3 7 / 10

Great lead performances lift an otherwise unremarkable story

Natalie Portman and Susan Sarandon play off each other beautifully in this easy going mother/ daughter drama that pulls a switcheroo on the traditional roles.Sarandon stars as Adele, a fairly wild, out of control dreamer, who decides to leave Bay City, Wisconsin with her daughter Anne, a grounded realist, in order to try and get a teaching job in Beverly Hills.If one was to summarize the script to this film in one word, it would be under developed. I mean, it's all there, a mother-daughter relationship with a role reversal, a love interest for both, a struggle between the two with a resolution, but this film just seems to happen and then end.You'll find yourself wondering what any of the side characters are doing in this story apart from making up numbers. The big strength is the performances from Sarandon and Portman and the way they relate to each other. The two play off each other beautifully, with Sarandon giving a fearless performance as an irresponsible, out of control, immature mother that allows Portman to make the most of her role as a responsible, careful young woman growing up and maturing with considerable dignity. This film earned Portman her first Golden Globe nomination, and is an interesting watch for any of her fans. The highlight in the film of the two together is the scene where Portman has to comfort her mother after a painful break-up with the realization written all over her face that this is an absurd reversal of the natural order.Most of the supporting cast are wasted, with Hart Bochner a particularly grievous waste. So big is Sarandon's performance and so arresting is Portman these characters would have dissolved into the background anyway, but it is frustrating that the script doesn't put the time into developing the side characters. While the film explores sex, death and small town boredom, we don't really know any of the characters these issues are effecting.Anywhere but Here is worth watching for the excellent performances from the leads, and its easy going tone. Probably not one to go out of your way to track down, but certainly worth watching on cable.
Reviewed by khatcher-2 6 / 10

fine pairing; discreet directing

Susan Sarandon has amply shown that she is capable of turning her hand to most kinds of rôles and is especially adept at teaming up with youngsters. This is no less so in this film with the prodigious Natalie Portman: the two keep the film interesting when almost everything else is a rather blasé prêt-a-porté production, mostly due to Wayne Wang's rather uninspired directing, as well as a music score that has very little to do with the proceedings and did nothing to fill in any stop-gaps.The film is saved precisely by the Sarandon-Portman tandem providing an energetic display of a mother, divorced, skidding along frenetically almost hysterically, and her adolescent daughter trying to keep her young head on her shoulders and pointing in the right direction. The result is an interesting clash of personalities, veering from the dramatic to the humorous in a style which is not far from being a `road-movie'. Indeed, frequently, reminiscences of `Thelma and Louis' come to mind as the film unfurls, though `Anywhere but Here' is several rungs lower down on the ladder. Even so, my vote is slightly higher than the IMDb average. Hopefully we shall be able to enjoy a true drama with these two ladies in the future, but with a more exiguous director – Stephen Daldry, perhaps?
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