It's a tour de force that's already generating Oscar buzz: British stage actress Janet McTeer oozing more Southern-fried sizzle than a hush puppy in director Gavin O'Connor's take on Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. With a flawless drawl and rangy sensuality, the Tony winner is magnetic as Mary Lou, a single mom whose taste in men leans toward hot-tempered losers in tanktops. After yet another relationship ends in a climax of shattered dishware, she and her prescient daughter (the promising Kimberly Brown) peel off into the night, settling finally in sunny San Diego. There life begins to brighten for the two -- until Mary Lou sidles up to her next beer-swilling beau (the versatile O'Connor).

The mother-daughter bond is the real love affair here: McTeer and Brown limn a heartfelt, offbeat alliance that defies the fickleness of mere romance. But Mary Lou's compulsion to hit the interstate every time a marriage sours is melodramatic, and, like most habits, predictable. The result is a plot too slight to contain a relationship this substantial. Screens at the Copley Place Friday, September 17 at 7:30 and 10 p.m. Director Gavin O'Connor and actress Janet McTeer will be present at Friday's 7:30 showing.