|
|
|
|
||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
|
Anywhere But Here by Stephen Farber Mona Simpson's highly acclaimed novel Anywhere But Here doesn't have the epic ambitions of Guterson's or Woodrell's books. It follows the adventures of a reckless woman (Susan Sarandon) and her teenage daughter (Natalie Portman) as they travel from Wisconsin to Beverly Hills. A novel can survive on incisive observation of character and pungent dialogue, but even when these virtues are well translated to the screen, as they are here by screenwriter Alvin Sargent and director Wayne Wang, they alone don't provide enough narrative drive to keep an audience engrossed. The few dramatic hooks that the movie tries to insert--the death of a beloved cousin, the conflict between mother and daughter over which college she'll attend--seem forced. This is not to say many of the individual vignettes are not entertaining, or that Sarandon and Portman give anything but vivid, intelligently modulated performances. Without a strong central narrative, though, the film loses momentum and ends as one more tired treatise on family dysfunction. What did you think of this movie? Sound off in the Movie Forum. |
|
|
| home | forum | this month | reviews archive | features archive | back issues | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 © 2003 Movieline.com |
 |