Actresses Work Flawlessly In Not-So-Perfect ‘Tumbleweeds’

When the 1999 Oscar nominations were released in February, one name on the Best Actress list stood out.

Not because of its familiarity, mind you. Just the opposite: Who’d ever heard of Janet McTeer?

Those who regularly attend Broadway plays, for one. The 39-year-old actress won a Tony award in 1997 for her role in a revival of “A Doll’s House.”

And those who watch the British Broadcasting Company. McTeer, English-born, has been a BBC star since the mid-1980s.

Even so, her nomination for “Tumbleweeds” seemed to come out of nowhere. Directed and co-written by little-known Gavin O’Connor (who plays a small but important role in the movie), “Tumbleweeds” casts McTeer as a single woman struggling to find happiness while raising her 12-year-old daughter (brilliantly played by Kimberly Brown).

Similar in theme to Wayne Wang’s “Anywhere But Here,” which starred Susan Sarandon and Natalie Portman, “Tumbleweeds” is a study both of a self-centered, self-absorbed woman and of that woman’s clutchy relationship with her daughter.

Any problem I have with the film certainly doesn’t involve McTeer, who seems to play her role faultlessly. It’s just that the character she plays is too caught up in the ongoing spiral of seeking out a man, who will end up only abusing her — a lifestyle that she continually foists upon her daughter. In fact, it’s hard to feel sympathy for any character but the young girl.

Brown, to me, is what does make “Tumbleweeds” special. She seems more real than actressy, and her spunkiness fits her character perfectly. Here is a girl who loves her mom despite the woman’s weaknesses, and her ability to see the larger truth is what ultimately will save her.

Tumbleweeds

**-1/2 Rated PG-13 (On VHS and DVD)

The week’s major releases on video and/or DVD:

The Insider

***-1/2

First of all, forget that this Michael Mann film is based on a true story. Its source was a Vanity Fair magazine article about tobacco-industry whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand and his troubled relationship with the CBS news show “60 Minutes.” As often is the case with such stories, Mann fictionalized some aspects of the plot for “dramatic effect,” which dilutes — some would say dissolves — its overall believability.

Even so, as a film, “The Insider” is breathtaking. Mann has a unique ability to tell stories visually, giving us what we need as the movie progresses instead of using redundant means of exposition (voiceovers, flashbacks, etc.)

He follows two characters, the first being former scientist Wigand (Russel Crowe) who tries to live with his conscience despite knowing the lies upon which the tobacco industry is based. The other is “60 Minutes” producer Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino), whose principles get trampled by a corporate mentality that sees little distinction between a half-truth and outright falsehood.

Well-directed and exquisitely photographed, “The Insider” has the added benefit of superb acting by everyone from Pacino and New Zealand-born Crowe to Christopher Plummer (as Mike Wallace), Diane Venora (as Wigand’s weak-willed wife) and Bruce McGill (as a crusading lawyer). Mann’s film may not be the literal truth, but it sure makes for a stirring story in the great tradition of “All the President’s Men.” (VHS and DVD) Rated R

Three Kings

**-1/2

In his previous two films, writer-director David O. Russell proved himself a true filmmaker of the 1990s. His concerns were purely contemporary and self-involved: adolescent frustration (“Spanking the Monkey”) and 20-something angst (“Flirting with Disaster”).

In the neo-war effort “Three Kings,” he tackles nothing less than a universal romantic notion — that of the duelling notions of selfishness and self-sacrifice — to which the likes of John Ford and Howard Hawks devoted their careers. His protagonists — a quartet, not a trio, of American soldiers waiting orders following the end of the Gulf War — are unlikely heroes: From George Clooney’s disillusioned officer to Mark Wahlberg’s charismatic squad leader, each is counting the minutes until he can return home to the good ol’ U.S. of A.

But when they stumble onto a map that indicates where Saddam Hussein has stashed a load of Kuwaiti gold, they decide to use their status as conquerors to get rich quick. Then when they see how the Iraqi people have been left for dead, they suffer a collective crisis of conscience.

Russell plays with politics, using whiz-bang film techniques to underscore his contention that the U.S. did barely half the job required in Iraq. And he gets some terrific screen presence — I won’t say acting — from the likes of Clooney, Walhberg, Ice Cube and filmmaker/actor Spike Jonze. In the end, though, he tries to have it all — the satisfying ending, the political statement, the feeling of joyful anarchy and most of his stars standing. And the resulting feeling is, mostly, one of compromise. “Three Kings” is long on style, but woefully short of substance. (VHS and DVD) Rated R