Tumbleweeds

I really liked Tumbleweeds (1999) and will watch it again soon. Though it may look like a "chick flick" about a mother-daughter relationship, it's much more than that. First, it's a solid story, based on a memoirish version of Angela Shelton's childhood and then adapted by director-screenwriter-actor Gavin O'Connor.

The basic idea, as we are dropped into what is obviously repeat wreckage, is that Mary Jo, the mother (played in excellent style by Janet McTeer) impulsively resorts to fight or flight behavior with the guys she becomes involved with -- usually a horrible fight followed by a panicky flight, dragging Ava (well done by Kimberly Brown), her precocious twelve-year old daughter, everywhere she goes. Aside from an absorbing character study, Tumbleweeds also shows how economics and gender drive many of our existential decisions and fortunes. And, in addition to male-female interaction, we see Ava asserting herself out of necessity. She gets to deliver a number of the best lines, for instance pointing out her mother's "future ex-husband."

O'Connor gives a subtle performance as Jack, one of the hapless guys Mary Jo and Ava make house with; their three-way dynamic poignantly unravels as one neglectful or ill-considered thing after another leads to eventual domestic distintegration. This is only one telling episode as the tumbleweeds roll west.

Roger Ebert, in his review of Tumbleweeds, has this to say -- an interesting writing prompt in itself: "Those who go west are often poor, or unlucky in love, or have been roughly treated by life. Those who go east, on the other hand, are usually smart, aggressive and ambitious" (1999).

Does this suggest that residing in the Middle in a place like Chicago puts Ebert somewhere in the middle?

Angela Shelton went on to create a documentary that I haven't seen yet -- Searching for Angela Shelton (2004). The intriguing premise is: she roams around the USA looking up other people with the same name, and then glimpses their life stories, many of them surprisingly similar to hers -- full of domestic abuse and other woes. One suspects resilience, as well. Life imitating art, art imitating life, and life paralleling art and life.

Today's Rune: Journey.

Bon voyage!