Whenever trouble strikes in one of her relationships, single mother Mary Jo Walker and her daughter, Ava, pack up and move to another city, a routine Ava is tiring of. This time, they are helped on their move to San Diego by trucker Jack Ranson. While Ava settles in, getting a leading part in the school play, Jack starts dating Mary Jo but soon reveals himself to be controlling and aggressive. Mary Jo prepares to flee again, angering Ava.
Acting
Janet McTeer's Oscar-nominated turn—messy, magnetic, utterly real.
Writing
Dialogue that actually sounds like mothers and daughters fighting.
Director
Gavin O'Connor
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Director Gavin O'Connor cast himself as Jack after the original actor dropped out—he wanted the controlling boyfriend to feel authentically threatening, not cartoonish.
Tumbleweeds was part of a late-90s wave of mother-daughter road movies (Anywhere But Here, The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood), but distinguished itself by refusing easy reconciliation.
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