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  Directed by
  Starring
  Specs
  • Widescreen 2.35:1
  • 16:9 Enhanced
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  Subtitles
    Hebrew, Czech, Polish, Hungarian, Portuguese, English - Hearing Impaired, Turkish, Icelandic, Croatian, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish
  Extras
  • Theatrical trailer
  • Featurette

Anywhere But Here

20th Century Fox/20th Century Fox Home Entertainment . R4 . COLOR . 109 mins . PG . PAL

  Feature
Contract

Poor Ann August (Natalie Portman). She has been up-rooted from her home, family and friends by her restless mother Adele (Susan Sarandon) and driven to the other side of the country, to Los Angeles California to be precise. From Ann's perspective this is a disaster while from Adele's it is a chance to finally get away from Hicksville USA.

"You don’t have a job in the Los Angeles school district!"
"I will have, I have an interview and a great outfit!"

Adele wants to be something other than she is. She places value in things such as fancy cars, name brand clothes, having the right address and so on. She has constructed for herself a fantasy that sees her living a comfortable life in Beverly Hills with an actress for a daughter. The reality is that she cannot afford to live in Beverly Hills and can only find work in the public school system for a barely adequate wage. Despite the tight finances, Adele frequently spends money on things that she cannot afford, leaving the household without essentials such as power. Because of her mother's refusal to accept reality, Ann is forced to become the adult while trying to deal with the difficulties of moving to a new city and finding her way through the minefield that is adolescence.

This movie explores the complicated relationship between a mother and teenage daughter in what is a well-written and nicely paced drama. The main characters are well developed through the use of flashback scenes and a narrative from Ann's perspective. The movie follows the two as they drive to Los Angeles and struggle to establish themselves in this new city. We watch Ann grow from an unhappy and awkward girl to a confident and determined young woman, while at the same time we watch Adele rebel against the need to be responsible and to face the fact that she is never going to have the luxuries in life that she desires.

  Video
Contract

While this 16:9 enhanced video transfer is not going to leave you gobsmacked, it is still a pretty good transfer with no significant flaws.

The colour palette is nicely balanced and natural looking, but perhaps just a little on the subdued side. In terms of sharpness and detail this transfer is good, but it is diminished by a slightly soft look and some minor lapses in focus.

There are few MPEG artefacts worthy of note with only minor examples of aliasing popping up from time to time. Edge enhancement is used throughout the film, but I did not find it distracted me from the film itself. I saw only one example of film-to-video artefacts, which in this case took the form of some moiré effects during one short sequence.

Film grain is very fine and all but invisible while film artefacts occur throughout, but are limited to small flecks and are unlikely to be noticed during normal viewing.

This is an RSDL disc with the layer change taking place at 64:38. The change is well placed as it occurs during a scene change.

  Audio
Contract

This audio transfer is always easy to understand and contains no synch issues. The front channels do most of the work with the rears only used for ambient effects. Certain sounds are isolated in individual channels and do, on occasion, transition from one channel to the next. Musically this soundtrack is nicely laid back and mixes your normal orchestral themes with popular music.

You are not going to be using this soundtrack as a demo disc, as this soundtrack is quite subtle. This is one example of a movie where you must listen to it at your reference level to get the best out of it.

  Extras
Contract

Theatrical Trailer Oh how exciting! Zzzzzzzz... OK, if you really want some information about the trailer I can tell you that it runs for 2:23 and looks pretty good even though it is not 16:9 enhanced.

Featurette Running for just a little short of five and a half minutes, this is pretty much your typical promotional “fluff” piece with the key people talking about the movie, characters, the screenplay and so on. Thankfully, this particular extra isn’t filled with comments like “Actor A is the greatest person ever to walk the earth” etc. The video for this extra is pretty good even though it is not 16:9 enhanced.

  Overall  
Contract

Many will look at this movie and think "Chick Flick", which I guess is true, while others will call it predictable, which I guess is also true. This doesn't, however, stop Anywhere But Here from being a nicely made film that features excellent performances from all of the cast and a movie worth considering for at least a rental.


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      And I quote...
    "...explores the complicated relationship between a mother and teenage daughter in what is a well-written and nicely paced drama"
    - Michael Chappell
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Loewe Xenix 5006DD
    • DVD Rom:
          Pioneer 105(s)
    • MPEG Card:
          RealMagic Hollywood Plus
    • TV:
          Grundig MW82-50/8 IDTV 16:9
    • Receiver:
          Denon AVR-2801
    • Speakers:
          Tannoy Mercury M4
    • Centre Speaker:
          Tannoy Mercury MC
    • Surrounds:
          Tannoy Mercury M1
    • Subwoofer:
          Aaron SUB-120
    • Audio Cables:
          Monster Lightspeed 100
    • Video Cables:
          ConCord SCART
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