Libres comme le vent

A Southern woman (excellent Oscar nominee Janet McTeer) leaves an abusive relationship and hits the road with her young daughter (Kimberly J. Brown) looking for the man of her dreams. Of course though McTeer's dreams are foggy and incoherent when it comes to the opposite sex. She has a love affair with a moronic trucker (director Gavin O'Connor), finds friendship with co-worker Jay O. Sanders and dodges advances from old perverted boss Michael J. Pollard. Shades of Martin Scorsese's "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" as this is basically a road trip picture for the fairer sex. McTeer is amazing and totally believable as an American from the wrong side of the tracks (she is a classically-trained Brit in reality). The quirky situations and hilarious moments make up for the picture's helter skelter screenplay and prodding tone. 4 stars out of 5.

Mary Jo Walker is constantly on the road. She moves from state to state as one relationship ends and she heads out looking for another. Her daughter is used to the unsettled lifestyle but starts to feel at home in her new school once she gets a lead role in the school play. Mary Jo gets herself a job and a new boyfriend, trucker Jack, however how long will it be before problems put her on the road again?

As a concept, this film lacks originality - the plot and the characters will be recognisable from other films, but that in itself is not a bad thing as nothing is ever totally unique (well, rarely). That said, this film still manages to be enjoyable and engaging thanks to a well written script that gives us characters and not caricatures combined with some very good performances to deliver them. The story relies heavily on the characters and this really does a good job of bringing those out to the strength of the film. It struggles towards the end with a bit of sentimentality that betrays what has gone before but mostly it is pretty true to itself.

The writing allows Mary Jo to be a complex character but yet one that we can understand and sympathise with even if we can't empathise. Likewise her relationship are real rather than just being one-dimensional - with Jack we can easily see the major problems between them but we can also see what drew them together. This works because the film has the cast to deliver these characters well. McTeer was Oscar nominated for this film and she deserved t hat at least. Her thunder was stolen a year or so later by Roberts' doing a similar performance but in a bigger film (thus more kudos). She is very good and she made the film. Brown is just as good and isn't the `cute kid' that can kill movies. Sanders has the worst role and he knows it - his white knight threatens the whole film but it is not his fault. O'Conner gets the triple by being good as Jack as well as doing the business with directing and writing.

Overall, I wasn't sure if I'd like this film as generally the genre doesn't always do it for me, but here the performances really bring a well written script to live. It doesn't quite know what to do with itself towards the end and risks it's integrity a bit but mostly it is very good and worth seeing.

British actress Janet McTeer gives a convincing, first-rate performance as a Southern woman and man-lover who can't find a good guy to love. She and her preteen daughter drive from one state to the next, lighting in a motel room somewhere until a local romance blooms--and then high-tailing out of town when it predictably blows up. Soon after arriving in Southern California, McTeer's Mary Jo Walker finds a decent job, begins making friends, and sees her daughter excelling in school for the first time; however, a new relationship with a sexy but volatile trucker may put everything on the rocks. What starts out as a generic road movie--with hints of "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" besides--becomes an absorbing, intimate character portrait. McTeer (who resembles Laurie Metcalf) isn't your typical tramp or "lover of life"; she isn't unstable, and she's a good mother, but what she's trying so hard to get (a husband and a real home) doesn't always respond to her in kind. We see Mary Jo trying her damnedest to make her life work, eventually falling into familiar patterns but this time learning from her mistakes. The finale is rose-colored and probably not credible, but the optimistic nature of Gavin O'Connor's screenplay (co-written with Angela Shelton), as well as his perceptive direction, makes the journey a fun, embraceable ride. **1/2 from ****

In "Join Together," the Who sang, "It's the singer, not the song/That makes the music move along," and that can be true of certain kinds of movies as well. TUMBLEWEEDS is surely not the first mother/daughter film ever made, even this year. I haven't seen ANYWHERE BUT HERE yet(though the novel it was based on is quite good), but TUMBLEWEEDS distinguishes itself from the crowd by its attention to detail and character, and the performances. Director/co-writer(with ex-wife Angela Shelton) Gavin O'Connor makes San Diego come alive, from the office Mary Jo(Janet McTeer) works in, to the beach, and the small houses she and her daughter Ava(Kimberly Brown) end up living in. And except for perhaps Mary Jo's boss(well-played by Michael J. Pollard), who is a caricature(albeit a funny one), every character here is well drawn. Even Jack(O'Connor), the trucker Mary Jo ends up with in San Diego who later turns bad, is well-drawn; we're never meant to see him as completely bad, though he does have his darker side.

But the real reason to see this is the performances of the two leads. McTeer and Brown are fresh faces to movie audiences, which means they have no image to distract us from the story, but it also means they bring nothing we know from them to the part, so they have to start fresh. And they respond with wonderful and realistic performances. McTeer doesn't turn Mary Jo into the stereotype of an oversexed woman or the insufferably noble mother but as a woman who wants to do right but isn't always sure how. And Brown doesn't make Ava overly cute or precocious, but a recognizable kid who nevertheless has to be the adult at times. The two of them also have a terrific bond together as well, and like a character late in the film they meet, O'Connor the director knows enough not to intrude on that.

One last note; some comments have dismissed this entirely because it's familiar. Are you the same people who will gladly see a hundred SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE clones or THE MATRIX clones and not complain about them being familiar? As I said at the top, sometimes the telling can distinguish a familiar tale.

The other review of this film misses the point entirely. There is indeed tension, of the emotional variety, between daughter and mother. The child is the adult and the adult is child-like. One always hopes for the mother to make the right decision, to turn her and her daughter's life around. The performances are of the highest caliber, as is the writing, and the direction complements both beautifully, never getting in the way of the simple story. Watch this with a parent, a son, a daughter...a rewarding viewing experience.