Portman’s talent shines without costumes> Shedding her ‘Star Wars’ gear, young star overshadows Sarandon’s overdone role

In Theaters — “Anywhere but Here”

As mother-daughter movies go, there’s good schmaltz — “Imitation of Life,” “One True Thing,” “Mildred Pierce,” “Gypsy,” “Postcards from the Edge,” “Terms of Endearment” — and there’s bad schmaltz — “Stella” (1990), “The Other Sister,” “Hope Floats,” “Stage Mother,” “The Good Mother”.

Wayne Wang’s “Anywhere but Here” is good schmaltz.

Based on Mona Simpson’s acclaimed, 1986 best-selling novel, the film is a coming-of-age story about a runaway wife (Susan Sarandon) and her unhappy teen-age daughter (Natalie Portman), both of whom are having growing pains in the midst of a supreme battle of wills.

As Adele August, a middle-aged, small-town sexpot who always thought she was better than her hometown of Bay City, Wis., Sarandon is terrific, pouring on the flamboyant charm while parading about in pedal pushers, big brassy hair, and even bigger sunglasses.

Determined to break free from Bay City, she quits her husband, quits her family, buys a used Mercedes, uproots her daughter, and heads West to Beverly Hills, where the film recalls Tamara Jenkins’ “The Slums of Beverly Hills” and where this dysfunctional family explores what happens when the daughter is the grown-up and the mother is the child.

In scene after tear-soaked scene, the real surprise is Portman, who more than holds her own opposite Sarandon.

Free of the outlandish hair and inhibiting costumes she wore in “The Phantom Menace,” Portman is at last allowed to act — which she does spectacularly. She’s a natural, giving necessary weight to a film that easily could have become camp without her steady hand to counterbalance Sarandon’s over-the-top histrionics.

Grade: B+

On Video — “The General’s Daughter”

Simon West’s “The General’s Daughter” earns its stars and stripes with dialogue that crackles, performances that grip, and a sharp, sardonic edge that brightens a plot shot through with dark, ugly overtones.

The film should please fans of Nelson DeMille’s best-selling novel. West’s version is intelligent, seething with crisp writing, believable characters and an excellent cast spearheaded by John Travolta, Madeleine Stowe, James Woods, Timothy Hutton and James Cromwell.

In the film, Capt. Elisabeth Campbell (Leslie Stefanson) is dishonorably discharged from life — on her father’s command post, her body is discovered in the middle of a training field. In her basement is all sorts of kinky fare, including videotapes of her having sex with nearly every man who answers directly to her father, the elusive Gen. Joe Campbell (Cromwell).

Clearly, somebody here has issues, but who’s responsible for Elisabeth’s death is up to Paul Brenner (Travolta), the Army internal affairs officer in charge of the case, and CID agent Sarah Sunhill (Stowe), his former lover, to solve.

The book had greater moments of tension and a less preposterous ending, but West’s film is nevertheless engaging. What works so well here is the vivid word play between the characters, who are never dumbed down and provide necessary levity in a film whose soul is locked within the most sordid of basements.

Grade: B

“Teaching Mrs. Tingle”

Smack in the middle of a culture still uneasy by the sharp rise in high school violence, writer and first-time director Kevin Williamson (“Scream,” “Dawson’s Creek,” “The Faculty”) offers “Teaching Mrs. Tingle,” a film about a vile, mean-spirited history teacher (Helen Mirren) who plots to destroy three unlikable students (Katie Holmes, Marisa Coughlin and Barry Watson) only to come under attack by them herself.

Much of this is more benign than it sounds.

In spite of Mirren’s turn as the wonderfully sadistic Mrs. Tingle, Williamson ultimately puts Mirren’s formidable talent straight into detention hall.

In a sluggish movie that’s desperate for the measure of depth the great actress could have given it, Williamson is content only to let her be a caricature, never the fully realized witch she could have become, which harms a movie that could have used a tutor (read: script doctor) to truly make it work.

Grade: C-

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews are published each Monday and Thursday in the NEWS, and appear each Tuesday and Thursday on WLBZ’s “NEWS CENTER 5:30 Today” and “NEWS CENTER Tonight,” and each Saturday and Sunday on NEWS CENTER’s statewide “Morning Report.”