Movies about mothers and daughters are often seen as lighter-weight entertainment: middlebrow weepies and touchy-feely fare better suited for cable TV than the big theaters. But I hope that isn’t the case for two current movies about broken all-female families: either the upcoming Sundance indie “Tumbleweeds” or the current Hollywood picture “Anywhere But Here,” with Susan Sarandon and Natalie Portman.
Especially “Anywhere But Here.” This Wayne Wang-directed movie hands Sarandon one of the richest comic-dramatic opportunities of her career — while also confirming Portman as one of her own generation’s best and brightest. But in the flashier part, Sarandon does exactly what we’d expect: She makes magic with a part that could easily sink into the over-cute.
The movie is adapted from Mona Simpson’s novel about the Los Angeles migration of a starstruck, small-town Wisconsin single mother and her savvier teenage daughter. Sarandon’s plum part is Adele August: dauntless dreamer, fearless mama and one of the most charming and believable kibitzers and gate-crashers in recent cinema. Adele would be a killer role for any major American star actress. But she’s particularly appropriate for Sarandon, who nails the character’s brassy chutzpah, flirty energy, unabashed sexiness and hilarious posturing — as well as the kind heart beating, sometimes almost invisibly, beneath it all.
She makes it look easy. Sarandon, typed as a creamy ingenue in her 20s and a loose woman in her 30s, has become perhaps the screen’s preeminent mama, for good or bad. But this film, happily, is no saccharine, mechanical concoction like last year’s slick and syrupy “Stepmom.” Based on Mona Simpson’s tough, much-admired 1986 book, it’s a genuinely funny and moving picture. And Sarandon’s work as Adele, the divorced belle of Bay City, Wis., on the loose in L.A., is one of the delights of the year: a full-blooded, rousingly entertaining portrait of a woman loaded with nerve and burdened by dreams — and what happens to her and her daughter, Ann, in the city of endless summers, jammed freeways and rude awakenings.
The story is simple and even somewhat familiar — though it’s rarely been done this well. Sarandon’s Adele, after a lifetime spent in the small-town Midwest, dreaming of the coast, decides to take off for L.A., without a job, without prospects, without much money — but with Ann, who definitely doesn’t want to go. Ann wants to stay behind with the family and her special pal, cousin Benny (Shawn Hatosy), and she fiercely resents Adele’s pipe dreams.
We first see the two arguing along a desert highway, and their links and soft spots are immediately established. Adele is a prima donna, a sucker for media dreams and wanderlust who won’t give up. Ann is more sensible, less gutsy — or reckless. (And a bit of a smartass.) Throughout the movie — through Adele’s luckless romances and overselling, through Ann’s teenage crushes and dramatic lessons (forced on her) and a succession of cheap motels, unpaid bills, laughable embarrassments and constant crises, through sunshine and smog — we follow these two. And they never disappoint us. The tale may be archetypal: maddening mother and author-surrogate daughter quarrel and bond and grow together. But these are real characters, fully observed, gutsily written, beautifully acted by the two leads.
Portman wins us over by her subtlety and natural grace. But Sarandon takes the palm for sheer heart and guts. Her flair for unself-consciously exposing herself — for earthy, completely unguarded and big-hearted acting — is ideal for this Dairyland adventuress and cock-eyed optimist, who has been somewhat softened from the rowdier, bossier mom of the book.
As written by Alvin Sargent (“Ordinary People,” “Straight Time”) and directed by Wang (“The Joy Luck Club,” “Smoke”), “Anywhere” is an amusingly sharp but entertaining look at people we can almost immediately recognize, in situations that often seem painfully, even scathingly, true. (I loved Adele, but she’s a character who can make you cringe, over and over.) There haven’t been many better movies about the turmoils and kicks of mother-daughter relationships since 1983’s “Terms of Endearment,” and though this is a lesser work, it has a lively tone and mix of emotions similar to the James L. Brooks-Larry McMurtry Texas tale. (One difference: “Anywhere But Here’ is poignant-funny rather than sad. It doesn’t cut as deep.)
Wang is wonderful with this type of low-key, offbeat but honest character study. And he has a cinematographer, Roger Deakins (The Coen Brothers’ regular “eye”) who has caught such sumptuous widescreen vistas of Los Angeles — of Santa Monica, Sunset Boulevard and even Adele’s Mecca, The Beverly Hills Hotel — that you can practically feel and smell the place.
“Anywhere But Here” has one major audience problem. This movie happens to be what’s dismissively referred to by cliche-ridden studio executives, jaded publicists, air-headed TV “entertainment” shills and herd-following fans as a “chick flick,” i.e., a movie perceived as having no appeal for anyone of the male gender. Why? It focuses on (ugh!) families (oh no!) realistic domestic situations and (get me out of here!) the relationship between a believable, if eccentric, mother and her daughter.
Now, most stereotypes are odious, of course. And I’ve always considered it just as idiotic to assume that no woman will be able to appreciate the excellence of “The Wild Bunch,” “The Searchers” “Dirty Harry” ” or “Goodfellas” as to consider all men car-chase-and-gunfight fiends totally uninterested in family drama, psychology, human interaction — or women, for that matter.
But whatever lumpy nubbin of truth the “chick flick” cliche contains, I suspect that this movie will be one of the exceptions. After all, why would moviegoers of either sex want to miss terrific acting and great L.A. atmosphere? And why would moviegoers of my sex have no interest in a picture that’s funny, charming, smart, perceptive, finely crafted and stars two of the best-looking, most appealing actresses on the entire planet?
If they don’t — well, it’s their loss. As Adele might say, you can’t kill a girl for trying.
”ANYWHERE BUT HERE”
(star) (star) (star) 1/2
Directed by Wayne Wang; written by Alvin Sargent, based on the book by Mona Simpson; photographed by Roger Deakins; edited by Nicholas C. Smith; production designed by Donald Graham Burt; music by Danny Elfman; produced by Laurence Mark. A 20th Century Fox release; opens Friday. Running time: 1:54. MPAA rating: PG-13.
THE CAST
Adele August ……….. Susan Sarandon
Ann August …………. Natalie Portman
Carol ……………… Bonnie Bedelia
Benny ……………… Shawn Hatosy
Josh Spritzer ………. Hart Bochner
Gail Letterfine …….. Caroline Aaron
