MISPLACED (U.S., 1989) ***

It was mom's idea to leave Poland. After the militiaman beat 17- year-old Jacek (John Cameron Mitchell) for daubbing Solidarnosc on a wall, Helena Nowak (Elzbieta Czyzewska) made up their minds.

"I won't have Jacek involved in politics. He is an artist."

His less sensitive American classmates call him "the wimp from Warsaw." His dedication to the violin makes him an outsider in the kids-just-want-to-have-fun atmosphere of early 1980s.

Director Louis Yansen remembers his own immigrant experience. Together with screenwriter Thomas DeWolfe, he has shaped it into a sincere assimilation drama, a film that explores some of the anxieties and frustrations of cultural dislocation.

Mitchell makes a strong impression as the intense Jacek but it's Czyzewska who carries the day as his indomitable mother.