Anywhere But Here: A film that goes nowhere
Directed by Wayne Wang
My daddy always used to say “Be optimistic, doncha be a grumpy, when the road gets bumpy, just smile, smile, smile be happy! Don’t wear a long face it’s never in style, be optimistic and smile!”
Adele August
Anywhere but Here follows the unorthodox life of an emotionally volatile mother, Adele August, who ditches her and her daughter’s, small-town life in Wisconsin with hopes of achieving stardom in Beverly Hills. With great aspirations of Ann becoming a Hollywood actress, Adele sets their stable lives on this. The story follows their troubled relationship because of the mother’s flighty behavior, selfishness, and constant instability. This coming-of-age dramedy was directed by Wayne Wang and debuted in the year 1999. On the cusp of the flourishing early 2000s film style, Anywhere but here has that classic feel with simple directing and beautiful shots. Notably so, Wang is the same director to bring two more successful movies to cinema in the early 2000’s which were Maid in Manhattan (2002) and Last Holiday (2006), both of which had a feel-good quality to it. Though, this film is quite different from its successors as it seemed to go nowhere for most of its run time.
The crux of the issue lay in the mother’s flightiness and her daughter being negatively affected by this; however, this is a constant cycle where a troubling scenario happens, but nothing moves the story along. Ann’s constant brooding got old as did the mother’s instability. The real savior of the film are the great acting performances; albeit even without the strongest dialogue, their acting chops shone through. Natalie Portman did a wonderful job as a moody teenager and Susan Sarandon successfully played an unpredictable mother that allowed her selfishness to further ruin the deteriorating relationship with her daughter. The intended climax of the film seemed to fall flat because of Adele’s uncharacteristic nature to a major decision, which was very opposite to what had been displayed by her throughout the movie. It would have seemed more believable for Adele to continue as before than to suddenly change her ways for no other reason than a simple redirection by another character. Its ending scene provided no emotional pay-off and seemed to receive a hasty wrap. Therefore, there was no lasting impact from the film story-wise, but it proved to be a good watch character-wise. Certainly not a bad movie, it is simply a particularly monotonous film that goes nowhere.
The Island Cinephile 
