And this is all apparent from the very start.

         Unfortunately, what ends up emerging from the sketch act of a script is that the
big picture is left to loaf too much. ‘Tumbleweeds’ loiters unpleasantly on a line that’s
been treaded to death in a genre that’s like a coiled snake : full of venom and completely
unpredictable. I’ll easily earn that hostile “you-wouldn’t-understand-because-you’re-
not-a-woman” nod here. Hopefully women (yes, in general) will wonder just why this
film has such a gleeless scent for a movie that is attempting to praise, among other
things, the celebration of being a woman and the joys that go with nurturing children. It’s
a film that favors the quick rewards of the ‘coming-of-age’ talks over the slow burn of
actually seeing a ‘coming-of-age’ change in both the mother and the daughter. We learn
almost nothing about these characters except that Mary Jo is both impulsive and
compulsive and that Ava is guilty of a great deal of naivete, which ends up being
somewhat patronizing to her character, instead of a natural side effect of youth.

         And essentially, when ‘Tumbleweeds’ strives to fulfill the male end of life in this,
a very impersonal memoir of sorts, it bungles it horribly. It’s miles from being anti-male,
though it seems to flirt with the idea enough that it’s thought about it. It’s just not bright
enough to pull off a sly dig at men. The film’s men only come in two flavors : good and
evil. None of them are fleshed out enough to be more than simple benchmarkers and
cardboard simulations for Mary Jo and Ava to love and leave. (and don’t say that it’s the
mother and daughter picture. As Chris Rock pointed out : (paraphrasing) We need
fathers. A mother can raise a child by herself but that don’t mean it’s to be done. You can
drive a car with just your feet, but that doesn’t make it a good idea).

         In it’s defense, ‘Tumbleweeds’ plays up the mother/daughter relationship - and
thank God, for that is its saving grace. The chemistry between these fine actresses is
wonderful and they are, in some scenes, fun to watch. It might be far too perfect for the
mother to choose a man that the daughter has liked from the start - and it’s not the only
place where the film challenges reality - but when she does, the heart starts to beat again
in this, a film that’s almost too cold to feel it’s own warmth.