IN this domestic drama Susan Sarandon plays a single mother trying to bring up her teenage daughter (Nathalie Portman) within the confines of Bay City. Believing that "mother knows best" she drags her daughter off to Beverly Hills expecting a brighter future to come of it. Things don't work out as planned, and the daughter eventually shows her mother that she too has a life, and she needs to lead it elsewhere.

Directed by Wayne Wang, from a script by Oscar-winner Alvin Sargent, this is a sensitive and at times intuitive study of a clingy mother having to let go when her daughter reaches an age when she should rightfully be allowed to make her own career decisions. Sarandon is solidly consistent in a fairly gutsy role, Portman is under-used, and the film itself meanders to a fairly predictable conclusion.