Tumble Weeds Review

Mary Jo (McTeer) is a full woman. She`s the mother of 12 year old Ava (Kimberly J. Brown) and she`s survived four marriages. As Tumbleweeds opens we see her at the end of yet another relationship, she walks out and heads west with Ava in search of the next man. Ava talks her into trying out San Diego. Mary Jo gets an office job with a boss who hits on her - but Mary Jo puts out to just about everyone except him to be honest - and Ava makes friends in school, and gets a leading role in the school play... and Mary Jo gets to be really good friends with Jack, played by the director Gavin O`Connor...Roots are beginning to be established... This story, written by O`Connor`s ex-wife Angela Shelton, had its origins in Shelton`s life with her mother. Mary Jo is always ready to move on, to cast aside the past in an instant and seek fresh pastures. But her adoring yet long-suffering daughter is beginning to want another agenda in their lives. This film is a love story, it`s really the love story between a vibrant, sexually alive mother and her bright and knowing daughter. It is wonderful not only because of the performance of McTeer, which is extraordinarily honest but also of Brown who`s just stunning as Ava. There is an innate honesty about the film that reaches out and makes you know you`re watching something real. It is quite an achievement for first time director Gavin O`Connor, not least for the choice of McTeer as Mary Jo... David`s Comments: The material is very familiar (Alice Doesn`t Live Here Any More,) the recent (Anywhere But Here) - the mother who is constantly abused by the men in her life and the daughter far wiser than her years. But Janet McTeer and Kimberly J. Brown shine in this modest but very attractive film, and director Gavin O`Connor is frighteningly good as the affable truck driver who eventually shows his true colours.