Themes: Starting Over, Single Parents, Mothers and Daughters
Main Cast: Janet McTeer, Kimberly J. Brown, Gavin O'Connor, Jay O. Sanders, Lois Smith
Release Year: 1999
Country: US
Run Time: 104 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
Gavin O'Connor directed, co-wrote and plays a major supporting role in this drama about a mother and daughter coming to terms with each other's problems. In Tumbleweeds, Janet McTeer plays Mary Jo Walker, a single mother with a long string of bad marriages and a habit of hitting the road when things start to turn sour. Her 12-year-old daughter Ava (Kimberly J. Brown) has learned to live with her Mom's nomadic ways and comfortably slips into the pattern of each new town. At the film's outset, Mary Jo and Ava depart Missouri for San Diego, California, with Mary Jo falling for a rough-hewn trucker named Jack (Gavin O'Connor) along the way. Once in San Diego, Mary Jo's relationship with Jack fails to run smoothly and her new job presents more than its share of challenges, while Ava has romantic problems of her own when she gains her first boyfriend. McTeer, an established stage actress in England, made her American screen debut in this film, which also features notable character actor Michael J. Pollard as Mary Jo's eccentric boss. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Tumbleweeds is a triumph of three creative talents playing against type: a Brit who does a dynamite Southern accent (Janet McTeer), a 14-year-old with the acting chops of an adult (Kimberly J. Brown), and a blue-collar beefcake from any truck stop in America, who also happens to be the film's director (Gavin O'Connor). Essentially a mother-daughter road movie, a character study played out over multiple states, Tumbleweeds exceeds its modest goals due to the outstanding work of these three. McTeer was nominated for Best Actress for her note-perfect performance of a shiftless party girl with a penchant for meeting the wrong men. Despite these drawbacks, Mary Jo is also a loving mother who treats her daughter like a playmate and equal, making for a richly complex dynamic between the two. Brown perfectly captures the difficult-to-act age of a girl wavering between child and teen, and O'Connor is strong as the latest lout in their lives, not half the stereotype he could have been, and sympathetic enough to justify Mary Jo's affection for him. It's a movie that examines the tiny tremors of daily life, and does so with a familiar touch. Jay O. Sanders is also memorable as the one suitor who might actually treat them well -- a character trait that initially gets him nowhere with Mary Jo, who seems addicted to abusive relationships. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
The soundtrack to Tumbleweeds features a score by Golden Globe nominee David Mansfield as well as tracks from classic and contemporary country artists. Lyle Lovett's "Private Conversation," Lucinda Williams' "One Night Stand," Emmylou Harris' "One of These Days," Blue Mountain's "Wink," and Buck Owens' "My Heart Skips a Beat" all add to the heartfelt ambience of this Sundance Film Festival hit. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide
The story revolves around Mary Jo Walker, a single mother whose usual reaction to trouble is to pack her car with her belongings and take her pre-teen daughter Ava in search of greener pastures.
When a reunion with an old beau in Missouri proves to be less successful than anticipated, Mary Jo accedes to Ava's desire to see the Pacific Ocean and heads west. Enroute they're assisted by long-distance trucker Jack Ranson, who coincidentally re-enters their lives after they've settled in San Diego. Once again, Mary Jo foregoes both her independence and daughter's well-being in favor of having a man in her life. Her choices lead her and Ava into all-too-familiar territory, but this time when Mary Jo decides it's time to move on yet again, Ava - who finally has planted some roots - decides to rebel.
In his review in the New York Times, Stephen Holden said the film "is a modestly produced slice of Americana. But its central performances are so extraordinarily nuanced and the screenplay so perfectly attuned to the twang and beat of everyday speech that in places the movie feels like a documentary . . . There are many moments when what is on the screen stops looking like acting and becomes life itself, and you're watching real people change and grow before your eyes." [2]
Glenn Lovell of Variety said, "Powered by uncommon rapport between its femme leads and helmer's roughhewned sensibility, pic has what it takes to becomes the year's first heartfelt sleeper . . . [it] has topnotch production values and a strong supporting cast going for it." [3]
In the San Francisco Chronicle, Peter Stack observed, "Tumbleweeds is far from a slick Hollywood-style production. It's not encumbered, for one thing, by star power . . . [and] its lack of stars becomes part of its charm . . . The interplay between Mary Jo and Ava is the film's great treat. They seem utterly natural together, bound by mother-daughter ties that are complex, touching, ultimately so powerful they yield the kind of tearful joy rarely experienced at the movies." [4]
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone said, "McTeer and Brown make magic in a film that is wonderfully funny, touching and vital." [5]
