Word: mother
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...probably haven't heard much about Tumbleweeds yet, but come Oscar time, you'll hear plenty. Like Anywhere But Here, it's a mother-daughter tale, with an irresponsible, impulsive mom dragging her more mature, grounded daughter across the country. But Tumbleweeds succeeds where most mother-daughter sagas wimp out, because every moment seethes with vitality and honesty and excellent acting by leads Janet McTeer and Kimberly J. Brown make this a film to savor...
...week material; but it's a strong script, and even stronger acting, that carry this movie to great heights. Based on co-writer Angela Shelton's childhood memoirs, the screenplay is honest, emotionally charged and surprisingly intimate in what it reveals about the very strong bond between a mother and her daughter. Each scene is believable and completely organic; it's very easy to forget that you're not watching a real-life story unfold, and that the main duo aren't really related at all. Gavin O'Connor, who directs, co-wrote the screenplay and also acts as Mary...
McTeer and Brown, as Mary Jo and Ava, completely nail their chemistry; few actresses have made more convincing mother-daughter pairs than these two. McTeer is an award-winning British stage actress, though you'd never guess to look at her here; her North Carolina-tinged accent is spot-on, and she's so at home in her sundresses and golden tan that you could swear she was a Southern belle in a past life. She's already nabbed an early award from the National Board of Review for her performance, and she'll probably be making quite...
...Frank McCourt's Pulitzer Prize-winning best-seller, Angela's Ashes, may have wondered from whence the title of the book came. Upon seeing the film, it becomes clear that the title refers to the ashes that grow on the end of the cigarettes that Angela, McCourt's mother, smokes continuously as she worries her way through poverty, saddled with several children and an alcoholic husband who can't seem to hold...
Surrounding this parasite of literature is a cast of characters as diverse in chronology as they are in personality. There's an angry and suicidal Ernest Hemingway who acts as Garnett's servant, the under-recognized and frustrated feminist author Djuna Barnes, the heroine-addicted mother of Eugene O'Neil, and the aforementioned Anas Nin, played with delightfully French self-absorption by Karen MacDonald. Not to mention the entire cast of characters from The Brothers Karamazov, with Alyosha Karamazov (played with effective, i.e. not annoying, wholesomeness by Sean Dugan) serving as Durang's Everyman character in this absurdist romp...