Tumbleweeds Review
by Dennis Schwartz (ozus AT sover DOT net)November 5th, 2000
TUMBLEWEEDS (director/writer: Gavin O'Connor; screenwriter: based on the memoirs of Angela Shelton; cinematographer: Dan Stoloff; editor: John Gilroy; cast: Janet McTeer (Mary Jo Walker), Kimberly J. Brown (Ava Walker), Jay O. Sanders (Dan), Gavin O'Connor (Jack Ranson), Michael J. Pollard (Cummings), Laurel Holloman (Laurie Pendleton), Lois Smith (Ginger); Runtime: 102; Fine Line Features; 1999)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A very obvious melodrama about the relationship of a southern-white trash mother-daughter. A congenial bonding story, where the lesson the mother learns is so plain, that when she learns her lesson, it appears such an insignificant accomplishment, one that any child should have already known. The story is not the thing here, but the unflappable, zesty performance Janet McTeer gives, as she becomes absorbed in her part and plays it with emotional force, carrying this picture for all its worth.
The females bond on the road, as we see them leave West Virginia after a battle with mother's current abusive boyfriend and head West to Missouri to find that the man she dated from high school 10 years ago has become obese and lives on a broken-down junkyard type of farm, and so she takes one look at him and doesn't even get out of the car and continues heading West, as the two make their way down to a small southern Californian oceanside town.
The mother always leaves town after a spat. She married at 17, and has since had four husbands and many boyfriends, all of the belligerent and possessive kind. She has travelled to different parts of the South to get away from them, seemingly wandering aimlessly around. The British actress Janet McTeer gives an earthy performance as the attractive Mary Jo Walker, someone who always picks the wrong man. The 12-year-old daughter Ava, is played with adolescent tenderness by Kimberly J. Brown. She is someone who is disturbed by her mother's behavior, who loves her mother but is upset with her for only thinking about sex.
Stuck with a broken hose in the middle of the desert, the pair are rescued by a strapping truck driver, Jack (Gavin O'Connor). He fixes the hose, flirts with mom, which she reciprocates, while Ava mumbles aloud, here we go again. When they leave Jack, never expecting to see him again, they settle in Starlight Beach, California. This conveniently turns out to be where Jack lives. Mary Jo says it is an act of fate.
Mother and daughter settle into Jack's house, and since Jack is a carbon copy of every man she has gone out with, we wait for the explosion between them to occur. Meanwhile Mary Jo gets a clerical job with a twerpy boss (Pollard), who is also a pervert. She makes friends at the workplace with another female clerk, and avoids the nice man in her workplace, Dan (Sanders), who is attracted to her but can't make contact with her, except as a friend. Ava likes the gentle widower and tries her best to push them together.
Ava finds that she likes living in this pleasant town, where she gets the part of Shakespeare's Romeo in the school play. She also kisses her first boy and feels the first pangs of puppy love.
The predictable fight then comes between the quick-tempered and bossy Jack and the hard-luck Mary Jo, but this time Ava refuses to run away from town with her mother. The two move out of Jack's and try to make a go of it in town, as all indications this is where they will stay for awhile. Whether Dan is Mr. Right for her, is left up in the air, as one wonders if she is attracted to him. But, at least, the mother shows signs that she is getting wearied of abusive relationships and that maybe her next choice will be a better one.
The immature mother learns from her mature daughter, and this modest slice of Americana road film, which gets into the lives of real people, works in a limited way. My problem with the film, is that it didn't absorb me in its story. I just thought the mother-daughter were likable and the film was pleasant, but not far-reaching.
REVIEWED ON 10/31/2000 GRADE: C
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
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