Tumbleweeds
USA 1999
Reviewed by Demetrios Matheou
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
The Walkers are a two-unit family: mother Mary Jo is a spirited Southerner and serial spouse who flees town whenever a relationship breaks down; Ava is her 12-year-old daughter, an intelligent child buffeted by her mother's erratic love life.
Following the failure of her last relationship, Mary Jo again uproots herself and Ava and moves to Starlight Beach, near San Diego. There she gets a job as a secretary and Ava enrols in the local school. Mary Jo soon hooks up with Jack, a trucker. Despite a promising beginning, the relationship soon crumbles and Mary Jo decides to leave Starlight Beach. This time Ava, who has developed strong friendships at school, refuses to go with her. She runs away, hiding out at the home of Dan, a work colleague of Mary Jo. Mary Jo finally realises that it is time to put down roots with her child. The two are reconciled. Only then does Mary Jo notice the sensitive Dan, who has been attracted to her all along. Together, they go to see Ava's successful performance as Romeo in a school production of Romeo and Juliet.
Review
Sandwiched between the visceral New York films which established his career, Mean Streets (1973) and Taxi Driver (1976), Martin Scorsese made Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. A road movie about a newly widowed woman who sets out to find a new life with a young son in tow, the 1974 film very much comes to mind when watching Tumbleweeds, although the allusion doesn't necessarily favour first-time director Gavin O'Connor.
While Alice tries her hardest to avoid men, Mary Jo's compulsive behaviour towards them is the driving force of Tumbleweeds - responsible both for mother and daughter's nomadic lifestyle, and for the tensions between them. In exploring this, the script is often funny, and insightful. In particular, O'Connor and his co-screenwriter Angela Shelton (on whose memoir this film was based) avoid the usual overwrought rationalisations for Mary Jo's insecurities: hers is simply a banal life story, in which one mistake leads to another, until misadventure becomes a habit.
The depiction of the parent/child relationship is also well observed, less in the dialogue, perhaps, than in its palpable physicality: frequent meals, food fights, farting displays; Ava's first period; a trip to the beach wearing matching (and ill-fitting) bathing costumes. Rather than the saccharine show one might find in a more mainstream movie, Janet McTeer and young Kimberly J. Brown's tactile rapport offers something infinitely more believable. Indeed, it's the rich, febrile performance of the British actress, bringing just the right blend of charisma and chaos to her characterisation, that lifts this essentially modest film. Driving her Mustang as if dressed for Ascot, Mary Jo comes across as a raunchier version of Blanche Du Bois, still reckless before tragedy has taken its indelible hold.
The affinities with Scorsese's film are everywhere: in the scenario; the rather naive view of men - as either nice guys or irredeemable brutes - that one sometimes finds in female-centred films made by male directors; and the naturalistic performances. But O'Connor's handling of the mise en scène pales in comparison, exposing the ordinariness of his direction.
This is epitomised by his misguided use of the jarring 'naturalism' - the skittish, arbitrary camerawork - of US television police dramas. Even a quiet dinner scene between mother and child is shot as if the cameraman needs a detox. The result is as intrusive as the writing is subtle. O'Connor also appears in the film, as the trucker Jack; ironically, it is when he's on the road that the director, like his character, seems most at ease.
Credits
- Director
- Gavin O'Connor
- Producer
- Gregory O'Connor
- Screenplay
- Gavin O'Connor
- Angela Shelton
- Story
- Angela Shelton
- Director of Photography
- Daniel Stoloff
- Editor
- John Gilroy
- Production Designer
- Bruce Eric Holtshousen
- Music
- David Mansfield
- ©ALH Entertainment, Inc
- Production Companies
- Spanky Pictures presents a Solaris production in association with River One Films
- Executive Producers
- Ted Demme
- Joel Stillerman
- Jerry McFadden
- Angela Shelton
- Gregory O'Connor
- Gavin O'Connor
- Thomas J. Mangan IV
- Co-producer
- Lisa Bruce
- Production Co-ordinator
- Danielle Barrom
- Production Manager
- Kiran Gonsalves
- Location Manager
- Lynn M. Van Kuilenburg
- Post-production Supervisor
- Seth I. Shire
- Assistant Directors
- Anthony E. Kountz
- Scott Remick
- Nicole Rodionoff
- James Budak
- Script Supervisor
- Rebecca Battle
- Casting
- Todd Thaler
- Associate:
- Gayle Keller
- LA Additional:
- Rachel Bati
- Art Direction
- Wayne Acton
- Costume Designer
- Mimi Maxmen
- Wardrobe Supervisor
- Leigh Okies
- Key Make-up Artist
- Jennifer Turchi
- Key Hairstylist
- Pamela Phillips
- Titles/Opticals
- Cineric Inc
- János Pilenyi
- Nick Bilton
- Eric Person
- Music Supervisor
- Brian Ross
- Music Editor
- Shari Schwartz Johanson
- Soundtrack
- "Private Conversation" by/performed by Lyle Lovett; "Music to Her Ears" by Robert Williams, performed by Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys; "My Heart Skips a Beat" by/performed by Buck Owens; "One of These Days" by Earl Montgomery, performed by Emmylou Harris; "Lightning Strike Me Down" by Shawn Jones, performed by Shawn Jones Band; "Long Way Down", "One Night Stand" by/performed by Lucinda Williams; "Sea of Heartbreak" by Paul Hampton, Hal David, performed by Johnny Cash; "Wink" by Cary Hudson, Laurie Stirratt, performed by Blue Mountain; "Scientific" by Matt Boruso, Loudspeaker, performed by Loudspeaker; "6 Dances from Terpsichore" by Michael Praetorius, performed by The Collegium Terpsichore; "Bow Down" by Leah Andreone, Bob Marlette, John Lowery, performed by Leah Andreone; "California" by Robert Bradley, performed by Robert Bradley's Blackwater Surprise
- Sound Mixer
- Lee Alexander
- Re-recording Mixer
- David Novack
- Supervising Sound Editor
- Chen Harpaz
- Dialogue Editor
- Louis Bertini
- ADR
- Engineer:
- Scott Cannizzaro
- Foley
- Artist:
- Brian Biacho
- Engineer:
- George Lara
- Editor:
- Thomas A. Gulino
- Cast
- Janet McTeer
- Mary Jo Walker
- Jay O. Sanders
- Dan Miller
- Kimberly J. Brown
- Ava Walker
- Gavin O'Connor
- Jack Ranson
- Laurel Holloman
- Laurie Pendleton
- Lois Smith
- Ginger
- Michael J. Pollard
- Mr Cummings
- Ashley Buccille
- Zoe Broussard
- Cody McMains
- Adam Riley
- Linda Porter
- Mrs Boman
- Brian Tahash
- Winston Jackson
- Josh Carmichael
- Billy Jo
- Dennis Ford
- check-out clerk
- Sara Downing
- Rachel Riley
- Joel Polis
- vice principal
- Christian Payne
- Rachel's boyfriend
- Harry Gradzhyan
- gas attendant
- Renelouise Smith
- Captain Nemo's waitress
- Kelly Rogers
- Zoe's mom at cast party
- Stephanie Zajac
- Lady Capulet
- Jennifer Page
- nurse
- Lisa Persky
- diner waitress
- [uncredited]
- Noah Emmerich
- Vertis Dewey
- Certificate
- 12
- Distributor
- Entertainment Film Distributors Ltd
- 9,220 feet
- 102 minutes 27 seconds
- Dolby digital
- Colour by
- Technicolor East Coast, Inc