Lure of the sunny, vibrant and “hip” California was traditionally irresistible for many in the dreary Midwest, and this includes one of two main characters in Anywhere But Here, 1999 drama directed by Wayne Wang. The plot, based on the eponymous novel by Mona Simpson, begins when Adele August (played by Susan Sarandon), despite being well off and having loving husband, decides that she had enough of small Wisconsin town. She leaves town and goes to Los Angeles where she would start new life as a teacher in elite Beverly Hills school. Problem is that she is bringing with herself Ann (played by Natalie Portman), 15-year old daughter who is not happy that she had to leave anything she loves behind, including cousin Benny (played by Shawn Hatosy) to whom she has some romantic feelings. Adele is, however, convinced that her daughter would soon become a famous actress, a career Ann doesn’t think she would achieve. It turns out that Adele’s dreams in California actually had little to do with reality. Instead of luxurious Beverly Hills mansions, Augusts are forced to live in motels and barely make ends meet. Men on whom Adele wanted to rely on, turn out to be disappointments. Ann, however, needs some time to face enough courage and tell her mother that she would start her new life.
Due to plot very similar to Tumbleweeds, low budget independent drama with similar concept that had been released around the same time and won critical acclaim, comparisons between two films were inevitable and they weren’t kind to Wang’s work. Most of that can be traced to Wang, author who had some notable films in 1990s like The Joy Luck Club and Smoke. In this particular case he and his screenwriter Alvin Sargent were basically working on big studio project and never bothered to hide it, despite the material being more suitable for another small budget film. The script deviated a lot from Simpson’s novel, mainly by removing all the darker content like sexual abuse and Wang even removed certain scenes after receiving complaints from the test audiences. The result was sterile, unimaginative Hollywood product that drowns in cliches and even wastes talents of two main cast members by having them to play ultimately dislikeable character. Sarandon plays mother who is both irresponsible and possessive, while Portman plays brat that just complaints but never does anything. Plot which is, for most parts, stagnant, never goes anywhere doesn’t help either. Wang tries to hide those issues by injecting a lot of feminist “political correctness” in the film and suggesting that women should stick together despite their generational and other differences, while all men are pigs. Despite those efforts, Anywhere But Here turns into major disappointments and even the fans of Sarandon and Portman should do themselves the service by spending two hours of their lives on something better.
RATING: 2/10 (-)
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