Review: ‘Anywhere But Home’ is anything but entertaining

Spicezee Bureau

For a film that stars two of the most raved about Hollywood actors Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughan, ‘Anywhere But Home’ is a disappointing, below par attempt at the romantic comedy genre. In fact, the film hardly belongs to any genre, to say the least.A sub standard potboiler, the film has several loopholes that try your patience and mock your intelligence. On the lines of Sarah Jessica Parker and Dermot Mulroney starrer ‘The Family stone’, the film can win the most annoying film title award. Though the plot begins on a promising note with Reese and Vince taking some hilarious jibes at each other, the film complexly loses direction as it progresses. Taking about the story line, the film revolves around an argumentative couple, who are forced to live in the company of their divorced parents. Trying to evade their respective warring families, the two decide to revive their dud relationship by spending their Christmas holidays in an exotic locale. But as luck or the plotline would have it, weather plays spoil-sport forcing the two to return to their miserable families. Frustrated at the turn of events the two decide to avoid a pending confrontation by visiting their families. They start taking turns and visit his father, his mother and then, her father, and her mother. And what follows is a series of forced jokes and dimwitted situations. Vince’s brothers are shown to dumb who hit him for no reason, father has a strange obsession with fixing everything in the house and his mother is bent upon seducing her son’s best friend. Reese’s family too is no stranger to these wild antics. While her father is sober the rest of the family is drawn from hell. Her sisters are a horny bunch joined by their mother, who is busy hitting at guys half her age. A juvenile attempt to create a romantic comedy, the film completely wastes the talented Witherspoon, who in the past has given a series of praiseworthy acts. As for the chemistry between the lead couple the two, there isn’t any. Vince appears to be old enough to play Reese’s pa both because of his height and looks. In all, give this one a miss at all costs. Rating: A droopy one cheer for this one!