'Anywhere' rolls along like 'Tumbleweeds'

With Mother's Day just around the corner, you might want to consider two of last year's hottest mother-daughter-move-to-California movies, also known as the battle of the flaky mom-chicks: the recently released "Tumbleweeds" and, available this week, "Anywhere But Here" (20th Century Fox, PG-13, VHS/rental, DVD/$35).

In "Tumbleweeds," Janet McTeer delivers an outstanding performance as the white-trash-with-a-dream single mom Mary Jo Walker. Her wiser-than-thou daughter Ava is played by Kimberly Brown. The story begins with Mary Jo and Ava running away from yet another abusive relationship, hitting the open highway in an aging Pontiac with West Virginia plates for the Big California Dream.

In "Anywhere But Here," Adele August (Oscar winner Susan Sarandon) and daughter Ann (Natalie Portman) are fleeing yet another stifling marriage and home life in Bay City, Wis. They hit the open highway in a gold 1995 Mercedes, headed for ... California.

Mary Jo and Ava end up jobless in San Diego. Adele and Ann end up jobless in Beverly Hills. Mary Jo and Adele share a common taste in clothing - kind of an Erin Brockovich bulging-at-the-bodice theme - bright colors, short skirts, lots of flesh and flash, and a bit too tight in the wrong places. Both feel that the right outfit - in other words, shopping - can solve many of the world's problems and their problems in particular.

They aren't all that good at picking men, either. Mary Jo's are faux white knights, who soon enough turn into jealous, raging abusers whom she usually must flee in the middle of the night. She's shared a lot of cheap motels with her daughter.

Adele's first husband left her in the middle of the night. After a few minutes of watching her eat and listening to her talk, it becomes somewhat understandable. She has a large personality. More than most men can handle, and an Egyptian husband who probably had deep traditional Middle Eastern values about women? Forget it. Her second was an ice-skating instructor whom she derided as "a little light in the loafers, if you know what I mean." Adele is also surrounded by an extended family that long ago made peace with the shortcomings of life in Bay City. She sees them as the living dead - often expressing such to their faces. It can come off as condescending.

Both women have a revulsion to what you might call nice guys - uncomplicated, sincere men who are way past the point where they are going to make a mark on the world, guys who are living out predictable lives that weren't their first choice. These guys tend to have cerebral assets that neither woman finds particularly attractive. Both seem to need some brawn in their diet. Both embrace a soap opera-esque hunger for romance, passion that leads them to make wrong choices. Both make friends with worldly women who can help them along the path to enlightenment or at least share war stories from the trenches of love.

Mary Jo lives for her daughter, Ava. Granted, she pursues her own self-indulgent path, while insisting she's sacrificing all for the benefit of Ava. Nice maternal slight of hand. And yet, there is a strong mother-daughter bond that is forged in adversity. Adele is doing it all for her daughter, too. But that isn't immediately apparent, especially to Ann, who basically hates her mother.

Both Adele and Mary Jo can find fascination in sunrises, fresh air, open roads - and other things that are free. Often when everything else around them is in a state of meltdown. Mary Jo eventually finds that the answer to her life desires isn't in the arms of a big burley man or any man at the moment. Adele finds that the path to fulfillment requires sacrifice.

In a way, both see the light down the road of unselfishness. In the end, both daughters reflect upon their mothers with deep affection - and that has the rich smell of victory around it.ALSO THIS WEEK:

"American Beauty" (DreamWorks, R, VHS/rental) - The winner of five Oscars - Best Picture, Best Director (Sam Mendes), Best Actor (Kevin Spacey), Best Cinematography (Conrad L. Hall) and Best Screenplay (Alan Ball).

A modern fable for our times, "American Beauty" follows the unraveling of the middle-class couple, Lester (Spacey) and Carolyn (Annette Bening). A dark comedy with enough twists and turns to keep any audience riveted to their seats.

"The Hollywood Knights" (Columbia TriStar, R, VHS/rental, DVD/$25) - After 20 years, this comedy starring Tony Danza, Fran Drescher, Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert Wuhl makes it to home video. Written, directed by Floyd Mutrux, the scene is 1965 and reminiscent of "American Graffiti." Only set in Beverly Hills on Halloween night. Wuhl and his gang of car-lovin' teens battle the local snobs who want to shut down Tubby's Drive-In, their favorite hangout.

"The Myth of Fingerprints" (Columbia TriStar, R, VHS/renal, DVD/$25) - Black comedy about a dysfunctional family at Thanksgiving. Stars Julianne Moore, Roy Scheider, Noah Wyle, Hope Davis, James LeGros and Brian Kerwin.

"Bringing Out the Dead" (Paramount, R, VHS/rental, DVD/$30) - Three harrowing days and nights in the lives of paramedics, this drama directed by Martin Scorsese stars Nicolas Cage, Patricia Arquette, John Goodman and Ving Rhames. Cage is a burned-out emergency medical technician who is haunted by visions of the people he has tried to save. He's on the edge of an emotional meltdown in bad need of redemption.

"The X-Files Season One" (20th Century Fox, unrated, DVD/$150) - This seven-disc box set includes the first 24 episodes of the popular sci-fi series about FBI agents Dana Scully and Fox Mulder, investigators of the paranormal.

"The Simpsons Political Party" (20th Century Fox, VHS, $25) - This three-volume set contains six popular Simpson's episodes, each with a political theme - just in time for the next presidential election.COMING ATTRACTIONS:

June 20: "Topsy-Turvy" - The intriguing recount of the making of the Gilbert & Sullivan operatic masterpiece, "The Mikado.

(c) Copley News Service

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Author: Robert J. Hawkins