Tumbleweeds (1999)
Director: Gavin O'Connor
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Performances don't come much more vivid than McTeer's Oscar-nominated portrayal of contradictory single mom Mary Jo Walker. Fiercely independent, she'd sooner quit a job than bite her tongue, yet emotionally she's congenitally dependent on whichever man she's with at the time. When we catch up with her, she's throwing her worldly possessions on to the highway, picking up the first guy that comes along. Her 12-year-old, Ava (Brown), has seen it all before, yet her advice always falls on deaf ears. This engaging US indie covers similar ground to Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and the Susan Sarandon vehicle Anywhere But Here, but scores strongly with its simple, unaffected style and earthy humour. Similarly, Mary Jo's relationship with trucker Jack (played by director O'Connor) isn't caricatured: we understand what they see in each other, even if the fault lines are staring them in the face. (O'Connor wrote the script with his then wife Angela Shelton about her relationship with her mother.) The film-makers almost blow it with a tear-crunching scene featuring Sanders as Mr Right, but regain their perspective with an inspired, improvised heart to heart on female plumbing.Author: TCh
Cast & crew
Director: Gavin O'Connor
Producer: Gregory O'Connor
Cast: Janet McTeer, Jay O Sanders, Kimberly J Brown, Gavin O'Connor, Laurel Holloman, Lois Smith, Michael J Pollard, Ashley Buccille full cast
Duration: 102 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
A Bond a day: No.5 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service'
Join Time Out as we revisit the 21 official James Bond movies to celebrate the release of 'Quantum of Solace'
Steve McQueen on 'Hunger'
Dave Calhoun meets artist Steve McQueen’s whose debut feature film, ‘Hunger’, is the story of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands
Producer Stephen Woolley on ‘How to Lose Friends and Alienate People’
Stephen Woolley, recalls the near catastrophes he had to contend with in bringing Toby Young’s memoir to the screen
Paul Newman: 1925 – 2008
Paul Newman died at his Connecticut home this weekend, at the age of 83. We look back at one of the great movie careers of the twentieth century
Richard Attenborough: interview
‘Entirely Up to You, Darling’ is the long-awaited autobiography from Sir Richard Attenborough. David Jenkins meets him in his Richmond home
Hard hacks to follow
To celebrate the release of 'How To Lose Friends and Alienate People', Time Out pick some of the toughest journalistic gigs in cinema








What do you think?
Post your review now