Tumbleweeds
Directed by Gavin O’Connor
Starring Janet McTeer, Kimberly J. Brown
This pleasant little film is “inspired by the true story” co-writer Angela Shelton’s mother and her relationship with her daughter. It’s based on the character and not the plot and events, and is certainly the kind of film which the lead actors must carry in order for it to work. Fortunately they do, with McTeer (a British stage actor convincing as a Southerner) and Brown (already experienced on stage and screen) as mother and daughter bouncing around the screen with a good sense of fun. They are an inseparable couple who share every aspect of each other’s lives.
Mary Jo Walker (McTeer) is an eternally optimistic, thrice-married North Carolina mother who jumps in her car with her daughter and moves on after each successive relationship fails. Her daughter Ava is a bright, confident twelve-year-old who sees the pattern of her mother’s life all too clearly, and convinces her to head for California this time, hoping for a change. In Starlight Beach, they settle into work and school life respectively and make friends easily. Mary Jo just keeps falling for the wrong men, and Ava is not happy when they move in with the latest boyfriend, truckie Jack Ranson (played by O’Connor, who also happens to be Shelton’s ex-husband).
Mary Jo’s attitude to life is reflected in the general tone of the film. There are ups and downs, but overall things are happy and cheerful. Some of this comes across as too-good-to-be-true. Mary Jo is the cool mum all the schoolchildren envy, Ava is the star of the school play and the other characters, secondary as they are, are all terribly nice or there for comic relief and even Jack is not actually bad, and the Californian lifestyle is all sun and beach and nice homes. On the other hand, the film avoids some of the clichés and at least handles the story with a sense of fun and intimacy as the two women try to determine the course of their lives.
Sue
