Mary Jo’s is a plain talkin’, gum smackin’, bleached blonde, honky-tonk Southern woman. She’s developed no real job skills and gets by on loads of charm, rustlin’ up almost any ol’ job when the need arises. Anyone who has lived in the South will be amazed at the stunning realism of Janet McTeer’s performance, especially because she is a renowned British stage performer with little American movie exposure. She won a Tony award for the stage classic, Doll House.

Tumbleweeds opens with a scene startling in its primal verbal violence as Mary Jo taunts her current lover while he is on the verge of beating her because of his jealous rage and utter frustration prompted by her brazenness with other men. Even if you prefer lighter movie going fare, don’t turn away because Tumbleweeds quickly focuses on the mother-daughter relationship. Though we follow Mama through other male attachments, the core story is about Ava who demands with obstinate courage that things change. Ava insists that they stay where she has, for the first time, friends and school success, roots that she has never known.

The sheer delight in this film comes in the deeper love and play between these two women. Even though Ava is still young, her mother openly shares the mysteries and joys of womanhood in a way that allows Ava to enjoy her youth and that allows Mama to revel in her daughter’s growing up. The lilt of their southern dialects in fighting, in fear, in play, and in soothing words of love are like music to the ear. When "Auntie Rose" (menstruation) first visits Ava, mother and daughter dance and cavort around the living room playing with pads and laughing at the strange complexities of a woman’s life. Thus, the heavy and shunned transformation some women have been subjected to is refreshingly cast in a bright, friendly light. In another hilarious and touching scene, Mama uses an apple to teach Ava how to kiss.

There is deep love, knowing, and connection between mother and daughter, but Ava is the wiser, objective one who compels the mother to grow up and to give up illusions that tear at her source of meaning. Because of Ava, Mary Jo is forced to face a profound despair and inability to take charge of any aspect of her life not dictated by what her free sexuality brings her. She does "it" and then resents the man who brings her no lasting satisfaction, and then runs to the next town and the next man in panic. This film is balanced in portraying the realities of feminine dissatisfaction without making anyone the villain. In fact, the director plays a boyfriend who cannot keep up with his new girls because he is just not emotionally and spiritually limber enough.

Like Anywhere But Here, which was released earlier this year, Tumbleweeds offers a non-preachy look at the maternal bond. Both films illustrate the mother’s need to mature for the daughter’s sake. Usually, parents know what’s best, but often, the real blessings of the parental relationship may come when the parent accepts the child’s demand to be present for the child’s sake.

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