Tammy's Always Dying

This movie had an honest feel to it. It reminded me of the 1970 Canadian classic, Goin' Down the Road with it's stark characterizations. We all know these people. The storytelling was delivered open-faced with no surprises. It was refreshingly non-pretentious. Felicity Huffman, and Anastasia Phillips played their parts straight out, and were very believable, with veteran Clark Johnson acting as foil for both women.

If you're looking for a simple drama without mind bending twists to it, this won't disappoint.

Whoa, has Felicity Huffman ever let herself go!

With a mat of hair and raccoon mascara, Tammy boozes away her welfare check, then concludes her month binge with a wobbly climb to perch atop a precarious bridge, waiting for some form of salvation. Her daughter plays along with the routine, but this ain't no family love in.

Catherine has her own issues, and her crazy mother may or may not be the root cause. Irregardless, they coexist, sparring and pushing buttons as only direct kin can. The dynamic may be old hat, but it is balanced with a good balance of guilt, compassion, fury and a sneaky bite of dark comedy. Tammy's abusive train wreck act is hard to stomach, making Catherine's willingness to play the snappy Saint a bit puzzling. But there they are, stuck in their perfectly orchestrated ruts.

Huffman is particularly enjoyable as a totally despicable character, with just enough glimpses of joy and insight sprinkled amongst her destructive ways to offer some kind of hope. There's a human in there, somewhere.

"Tammy's Always Dying" is filmed under the omnipresent grey skies of former steel town Hamilton, a rubbly city oh so close to the flashy big time (Toronto) that cleverly mirrors its occupants. Life is hard, and even though there's something on the horizon, it may be unreachable. The second act plays with that rainbow goal dynamic, but muddies the pace, only to have it saved by film's end. The complicated mother - daughter relationship is the heart of the movie, and its ultimate redemption.

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Catherine MacDonald (Anastasia Phillips) finds her drunken mother Tammy MacDonald (Felicity Huffman) sitting on the edge of a suicide bridge. Tammy is always a mess. She is diagnosed with terminal cancer and becomes a constant caretaking burden. Only the chemo seems to be working and she refuses to die.

This is a Canadian indie directed by Amy Jo Johnson. I know her mostly from Felicity and it's nice that she is able to move behind the camera. I like some of her work here although the best scenes are these two lead actresses interacting with each other. They are giving some very raw performances. Of course, Huffman has some real life troubles and she is perfectly capable of transferring them onto the screen. As for the TV show, it's weirdly both unrealistic and insightful. Most of all, I would rather not have it since it seems to disrupt the mother-daughter relationship show. I want more time with these great ladies together.

"Tammy's Always Dying" was an emotional rollercoaster you don't want to get off of. It shows how a dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship can go from nurturing...to chaotic...to frustrating...to sympathetic...to resentful...and back to nurturing all in a short period of time. It's a reminder that family can be frustrating; that addiction can cause havoc; that mental health is one of the toughest enemies we face; but that there is still human connection underneath it all.

The second film directed by Amy Jo Johnson certainly was an enjoyable experience. The film tackles a very serious subject of addiction, suicide and death through illness. The Canada scenery was beautiful and the way things looked were fantastic. I certainly can feel for the character of Catherine as she is the main protagonist trying not have a breakdown dealing with her mother, Tammy.

While I enjoyed the film, Drama is not usually my genre of choice so the pacing of the film felt slow to me at times. Having watched the film through a screener link where I couldn't maximize the window or remove the time bar so I didn't feel like I was watching the runtime tick down, watching some of the scenes where there was no interaction or dialogue made me feeling like the film was longer than the 90 minutes advertised.

Besides the pacing (in my opinion because I am more used to action, thriller and horror genres), I did enjoy the blend of humor with the serious subject matter as well as the casting choices of Felicity Huffman and Anastasia Phillips as the mother/daughter duo.

I look forward to seeing it again through iTunes and hopefully get it to change my rating to a 10 just because I do find Amy Jo to be a fantastic director.