They've been down this road before and both of them know exactly where it leads. Mom drifts into a new town, winds up shacking up with some marlboro man or meatball truck driver, thinks she's in love for a few weeks and then the fights start. Her daughter has a pretty clear picture of the treadmill their lives have become, and usually has her bags ready to pack for that fateful night when she and her mom slip off into the night, en route to the next ramshackle town pursuing their dreams of a normal family life.
The mother and daughter in this film are best friends who trust each other entirely, having open discussions about topics many families consider taboo. Janet McTeer plays the mother, Mary Jo Walker, as a brassy Southern belle who tells it like it is, and encourages open lines of communication with her daughter, Ava (Kimberly J. Brown).
As they sit in a greasy coffee shop the morning after they've moved out of her latest abusive boyfriend's pad, en route to sunny California, Ada turns to her mother and says, "You know what I think of men?" Her mom shrugs, then Ada scrunches up her face, whispering, "Hold on a sec..." and then cuts a loud flatulent fart. Laughter ensues. It's pretty uncommon to see a story which portrays a loving, warts and all portrait of the single mom and her kid.
Coasting on her good looks and gentility, Mary Jo settles down in Starlight Beach, CA and takes a job in one of those crummy small town law offices where down on their luck housewives and thirtysomething women on the prowl spend their lazy weekdays, waiting for the nights when they can swing out to a bar, drink some beer and play a game of pool with the local yokels and bruiser bikers. Sure enough, Ada is quick to recognize the same old situation beginning to unfold as her mom takes to living with an affable slob trucker (Gavin O'Connor, who also directed the film.)
Finding herself in a new school, Ava makes another set of new friends which could be transitory as always. A bright eyed redhead who encourages her to audition for the school play and an adorably goofy punk with large spikes of hair and a wonderfully true to life mealy mouthed way of talking, with the words tumbling out in waves, come into her life, and something about this school makes her not want to become like the ferrets she keeps as pets, constantly revolving around the wheel in a never-changing environment.
