review for Anywhere But Here on AllMovie

Despite the best efforts of director Wayne Wang and potentially promising leads Susan Sarandon and Natalie Portman, this mother-daughter bonding drama is undistinguished and narratively disjointed, often leaving the viewer in the lurch when it should be emotionally engaging. The casting is not as successful as one would hope; Sarandon and Portman have little chemistry, not to mention wildly different acting styles. The former is sufficiently brassy but not completely convincing; the latter reticent and studied, but sometimes affecting. The sun-burned landscapes of the lead characters' road odyssey are well-captured, but the story has too many inconsistencies to truly deliver as sound drama. Based on Mona Simpson's acclaimed novel, the film bore a startling resemblance to the far-superior independent feature Tumbleweeds, which was released mere weeks earlier to much better critical notices.