OVP: Tumbleweeds (1999)

Film: Tumbleweeds (1999)
Stars: Janet McTeer, Kimberly J. Brown, Jay O. Sanders, Gavin O'Connor
Director: Gavin O'Connor
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Actress-Janet McTeer)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

Occasionally films feel very much "of their time," and then there are movies that sort of feel a bit alien to me, which is pretty much what happened when I saw the 1999 movie Tumbleweeds.  The movie made a tiny splash that year when Janet McTeer became one of those random actresses (like Sally Kirkland, Pauline Collins, and Fernanda Montenegro) who, with little domestic star power, manages to power through an awards season and come out the other end an Oscar nominee.  However, I hadn't seen this film at the time (tiny independent movies did not make it to my tiny little community, ironically enough), and so I recently caught this.  For those who want a blast from the past, let's dive in, shall we?

(Spoilers Ahead) The film is about a mother, Mary Jo (McTeer) and her daughter Ava (Brown) who are out on the road, packing up their lives and headed west.  The film is in the grand tradition of looking for your next dream that has been popular in American cinemas since the Silent Era.  There's something people truly love about throwing yourself into the next chapter of your life.  However, there's an added twist here that probably made me and a good chunk of the audience uncomfortable, and that's the fact that it feels irresponsible of Mary Jo to do this to her daughter.  Ava has picked up on some of her mother's flighty tendencies, and is clearly becoming a bad influence.  It's actually kind of endearing to have Ava be less responsible, because so often when these situations happen on television, the child is supernaturally mature and actually becomes the parent for the mother at times (Lorelai and Rory on Gilmore Girls or Susan and Julie on Desperate Housewives, for example).

The film follows a plotline so formulaic you don't need it spelled out for you (they find a new place, Ava actually likes it, Mary Jo is shown for being a commitment phobe, they meet a nice guy though not the initial guy they end up living with, and then in the end, after a nice long fight, they mend fences).  Seriously-if you didn't see that coming within the first few minutes of the film, I am totally lost to you.  The film is clearly, occasionally uncomfortably, on a budget, as the cinematography frequently feels like you're watching an original trailer from the late 1980's on YouTube rather than something a bit more pristine like we're used to today, even in independent film.  This works in the sun-dappled sequences, I suppose, but makes the film feel considerably older than it actually is and it cinematically doesn't jive with some of the other movies happening in the Best Actress category that year like American Beauty and The End of the Affair.

We should probably spend some time on Best Actress, obviously, since that's the reason we both showed up to this movie, and I will say that McTeer delivers there, even if it's not what I'd call a revelation by any stretch of the imagination.  Her Mary Jo passes the test (sometimes very hard to do in this style of movie) of being a highly-believable character.  She's so charming and funny and sexy that we believe that people are enamored with her (I wasn't taken at all with Brown, who suffers from that childhood actor problem of toeing the line between precocious and stylized), and that they'd let her get away with the things that she does.  That being said, I do feel like we don't quite get a sense of her motives, because someone that is so specific in their life's journey has to have dreams that are considerably bigger, though this is that fine line between blaming the actor and blaming the screenwriter.  Either way, it was an inspired and unconventional choice for Best Actress, even if I'm not entirely sold that I would have done the same thing.

Those are my thoughts on this now 15-years-old film (my how time flies)-how about you?  Do you remember Tumbleweeds as a personal favorite or something to quickly pass by the old memory?  What do you think of the very television-oriented nature of McTeer's career after her breakout?  And compared to Meryl, Annette, Hilary, and Julianne, where does Janet rank in your personal Best Actress ballot of 1999?  Share in the comments!