It seems that the once versatile Susan Sarandon has become the cruel casualty of maternal typecasting.
Quick on the heels of last year's "Stepmom," "Anywhere But Here" is the pseudo-tearjerker of the year. It desperately attempts to pull on the heartstrings of the audience while developing a love-hate relationship between a mother and daughter.
Natalie Portman (last seen in "The Phantom Menace") plays Ann August, a typical mother-detesting teenager, and the victim of her mother's hairbrained scheme to move from Bay City, Wisc., to Beverly Hills, Calif. Early in the movie Ann states, "I wish someone would kidnap me." This might not be a bad idea, since a kidnapping would ensure that her mother appears in fewer scenes.
The film depicts the mother, Adele August, to be immature, but good-natured and well meaning. The result is that Adele comes off as extremely obnoxious. Almost every time Ann is depressed (which is a constant), Adele tries to remedy it with either ice cream or an oh-so-cheery song: "Don't be grumpy, when life gets lumpy, put on a smile, it's always in style."
Sarandon's character is far from the lone annoyance in the movie. "Anywhere But Here" is ridden with emotional overkill in nearly every capacity.
Director Wayne Wang ("The Joy Luck Club") misses no opportunity in attempting to make the audience feel for Ann. During one of the numerous crying scenes, Wang uses a hand-held camera. This is a transparent attempt at making the picture look and feel as unstable as Ann's new life.
As if Ann's constantly tear-filled eyes don't already make the audience sympathize with her condition, more emotional events are thrown in. Her best friend from home, Bay City, is Benny (Shawn Hatosy of "Outside Providence"). He's the one person who can comfort her and make her sorrows melt away and - you guessed it - he inevitably dies.
Since a friend's death apparently is not wrenching enough, Ann calls her long-lost father who left her and her mother when she was only four years old. Her father accuses her of needing money and lets on that he doesn't care to speak with her. This, shockingly, makes Ann sob.
Wang's weak attempts at making the audience weep with Ann are compounded with even weaker attempts of having the viewer pity Adele by exploiting her financial and emotional insecurity. The movie portrays Adele to be so strapped for cash that she and Ann must use discarded chairs from the side of the road as their furniture. Also, Adele "forgets" to pay the electric bill not once, not twice, but three times!
From the get-go, it's obvious that Adele is in a state of emotional confusion. Unfortunately, this muddles the motives behind her actions. She leaves her stable family life and supportive ex-husband in Wisconsin to run off to California, but the audience is supposed to feel badly for her when she is seduced by a California doctor into what she does not realize is a one night stand. Come on.
"Anywhere But Here" continues to pile cheesy garbage into the plot as if writer Alvin Sargent did not care to put more effort into the story. During one of the high points of Ann and Adele's emotional instability - which takes place on one of their numerous ice-cream runs - Adele irresponsibly parks in a "No Stopping" zone. A policeman is about to ticket her when Ann storms off. The cop chases her and becomes the nauseatingly wise voice of reason. He tells Ann not to leave her mother until she is truly ready. So, of course, she stays.
Another high point of emotion occurs when Adele realizes that her daughter has been accepted into her choice college, which is on the opposite side of the country. Adele is so distraught she runs a stop sign and, surprise, surprise, the same cop pulls her over. Apparently, Yoda has followed Portman into this movie, giving sage advice in the form of an officer of the law. He tells Adele that if she loves Ann she knows the right thing to do about letting her go off to college. Adele immediately sells her car to pay for the tuition.
Despite the negatives of this film, Natalie Portman does an excellent job. She can obviously cry well, but there is more to her acting than that. In the midst of a terrible movie, she alone is likable. The viewers do sympathize with her character because of Portman's wonderful acting, not because of the contrived storyline.
When it comes down to it, "Anywhere But Here" is a poor movie. By the end, the audience has shed more tears of self-pity and boredom than Ann ever could, and is likely to wish they were anywhere but the theater.
Grade: C-
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