A lot of fun.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Blistering performances.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Ideal part for Susan Sarandon here. She is basically a free spirit. She has had 2 unsuccessful marriages. She flees with her unhappy daughter, Natalie Portman, to the L.A. scene. She secures a teaching job there, but with her problems and social hangups, teaching is not exactly for her and her resignation soon occurs.This is a film dealing with a mother-daughter relationship gone completely awry. There is family tragedy and the two women desperately struggle to cope with life, each one wanting independence.The telephone scene with her father is so memorable. That's what happens after years of separation and another family.The ending is an attempt for the two women to get the independence they have both sought.

I purchased this because it is an Ashley Johnson, her around age 15, the year before What Women Want. She only has a small part in this, a friend of the lead teen, but is on screen maybe four times. Those bits are nice, to me. A big plus is that Heather DeLoach, Ermengarde in A Little Princess 1995, is also in that group of friends. For me, this DVD is essential. * Spoiler * Further than that I have problems. The lead actress, Susan Saradon as Adele, plays someone tied up in knots to be at near baby level, the more obvious main story as how disastrous that is for her teenage daughter and for herself and for society. My DVD sleeve calls this funny and touching but I find that PR blurb to be missing the point and doing down Adele and Ann both, by that. This is a comedy to the extent that Brazil - 1985 or 28 Days – 2000 are. Of recent dvds I have seen, I find The Quiet and The Chumscrubber to be much more approachable in how they deal with this sort of thing. I can watch them more than once. Except there is still a need for some to follow the approach of this particular feature. There are other, less blatant, story lines and the photo shown early on is just as relevant as the mum's chains. * So. For me this is an essential DVD. But it only has ten minutes that I will want to watch often and this is scattered through the feature. The parts with the friends and parts that can give that some context.

This film is about a mother, Adele (Susan Sarandon)and a daughter , Ann (Natalie Portman)who move to Beverly Hills because Adele wants to feel "important" and she wants Ann to change her name to Heather and become an actress.Natalie Portman was excellent as usual! I loved the story!I was crying at the part where Benny dies. I own this movie and I love it. There wasn't a single thing I didn't like that is why I gave it a 10 out of 10. Susan Sarandon was also incredible! Sarandon and Portman are actually like a real mother and a real daughter.I think it would be hard to pretend that another actress was my mother/daughter.I love the scenes in the car especially the one where they are driving to relax and they go inside a house (and Adele lies the whole time!)So yeah!!

"Anywhere But Here" is a movie that could have worked a lot better if the mother and daughter had stopped fighting with another earlier and developed more of friendship to give it a better lead up to the end.I must say the acting in "Anywhere But Here" was good from Susan Sarandon and Natalie Portman. After all, they couldn't help that the writer skipped a few important steps while writing the screenplay.I'm glad to have been witness to a movie that had a believable plot, which surrounded the struggles a mother and daughter go through. I think this was unique because it has been awhile since I've seen this type of plot on screen as long as I have gone to the movies.I would be hesitant to recommend this movie based on anything other than plot.