Review of Anywhere but Here (1999) by Mercedes L — 19 Aug 2011

Adele: Providence, Rhode Island? Couldn't you have gotten any farther away from me? .

"A story of a mother who knows best... and a daughter who knows better.".

I like Susan Surandon and love Natalie Portman, yet I strongly dislike Anywhere But Here. It's melodrama for 2 hours and it just gets annoying. The story is that of a mother, daughter relationship. They leave Bay City, Wisconsin for Beverly Hill, California; much to chagrin of Ann(Natalie Portman). Ann is annoyed by her mother(I don't blame her), but still loves her. Adele(Susan Surandon) really annoyed me. I hated her character a lot more then I hated the movie.This movie definitely has a target audience. That target audience is any female who will cry at the slightest dramatic moment as long as it has sad music. .

I guess I can come up with a few good things about this movie. Obviously it has a good cast. It also has Danny Elfman doing the score and Roger Deakins doing the cinematography. That's about the extent of what I can say I enjoyed about it. The story is nothing new. It's pretty much just a study of a mother-daughter relationship and not a very good one at that. It probably would have helped slightly if I was a mother or a daughter.