Mariah Carey Connection

Knoxville-grown screenwriter Russell Schaumburg’s “Tennessee” certainly is not the first road movie to treat “home” as both idealized haven and personal hell, but it is among the few to do it without gnashing the story into pathetic mush.
Sure, the film is burdened with familiar melodrama, conventional situations and stock roles – alcoholism born of childhood abuse, a dying angelic figure, a wounded martyr deserving redemption, stifled talent, you name it – but the refreshing difference is that Schaumburg and director Aaron Woodley don’t pummel the cliches or chew on them endlessly.

Following two brothers along a journey of reclamation and catharsis across several states toward their former home near Knoxville, “Tennessee” saunters along mildly, covering that familiar ground with enough creative ideas and unexpected turns thrown in to make it a worthwhile view, even if it’s not a wholly satisfying experience thanks to some glaring shortcuts, haphazard moments, inconsistencies and an overly painted atmosphere.

Having fluttered about the festival circuit a bit, the 2008 film enters wider but still limited release Friday, including premieres in several cities right here in the state that gives it its name. Along with cinemas in Memphis, Nashville and Knoxville, Johnson City’s Real to Reel Theaters will open “Tennessee” in a special engagement as part of the managers’ commitment to bringing more art-house and independent projects to the region.

Nationally, the film could garner some attention thanks to its chief supporting player, pop superstar Mariah Carey, but local viewers rightfully should key on the state’s significance in the screenplay, as well as the handful of scenes shot on location in the Nashville, McMinnville and Dunlap areas.

It’s fitting that Schaumburg’s film would land here, not just due to East Tennessee’s prominence in the film but because his maternal grandfather was highly successful baseball executive Bing Devine, who went on to develop three St. Louis Cardinals teams into World Series champions after cutting his teeth with the Cardinals’ farm club here in Johnson City. Devine met his future wife, who would become Schaumburg’s grandmother, while working with the Cardinals here, so the screenwriter owes his very existence in part to Johnson City.

Schaumburg penned “Tennessee,” just his second script, in 2000 as he was trying to break into the film business in Los Angeles. Looking to write something with personal familiarity, he drew on his own personal longing for the comforts of home, as well as the many times he traversed the highways between L.A. and Knoxville, for the script’s foundation. In a telephone interview, he said he saw Tennessee not necessarily as an actual place but rather as an ideal of home with all the pleasantries and painful connotations that come with it.

Though Schaumburg initially considered the script a lark project intended as a learning experience, he came to see it as something special that might have some legs. Still, the screenplay sat on the shelf for five years without interest from producers until Lee Daniels, who produced one of this decade’s finest films in “Monsters Ball,” picked it up and gave it the green light. “Tennessee” debuted at the esteemed Tribeca Film Festival with festival cofounder Robert De Niro in the audience.

With the film opening in New York, Dallas, Philadelphia and some other major markets on Friday, Schaumburg says he is excited by the prospects of shining a different light on the South and Tennessee in particular, since he believes the film does justice to the state’s residents as capable of being “bright and authentic” rather than the stereotypical representations seen in many movies.

Schaumburg’s protagonists are Carter (Adam Rothenberg) and his younger brother Ellis (Ethan Peck), who set out for Tennessee from New Mexico in hopes of recovering identity lost when they were forced to leave the Knoxville area as kids. Abandoning football stardom and the love of his life, teenage Carter (Ryan Lynn) had pulled Ellis and their mother away from the embattled life dominated by their pathologically violent father in the mid-’90s.

More than a decade later, Carter is still caring for Ellis, now a college student preparing for a career in photography. Their mother has passed on, so Carter is the sole breadwinner, driving a cab to keep the pair afloat. But when Ellis is diagnosed with leukemia and Carter does not match for a bone marrow transplant, Ellis convinces his brother to load him up in the cab and make the trek toward Tennessee to search for their often-barbarous father in hopes he is a transplant match and will agree to donate.

Cue road movie conventions. Camp under stars. Run out of cash. Car breaks down for good. Encounter pretty waitress (Carey) with golden voice. Meet her nasty husband (Lance Reddick of TV’s “Lost,” “The Wire” and “Fringe”). Go on the lam in the husband’s car. Lie low in sleazy motels. Get drunk and fight. Hop on freight train that just happens to be headed toward a destination.

Some of those hackneyed moments are so rough, they’re cringe-worthy, and many of the key transitions amount to bad shortcuts, especially the obligatory chase scene that forces the rail portion of the journey. Schaumburg acknowledged the flaws, chalking them up to a breakneck production. Only about 70 percent of his script made it into the 21-day shooting schedule, and much of what was trimmed was in backstory components that fleshed out relationships and characters.

And as pretty as the scenes are at times, “Tennessee” is one of those films where all the important moments magically take place at dusk or dawn when the light is just right to bathe everyone in beautiful orange glow. It’s a technique that used sparingly might have strengthened the emotional impact of “Tennessee,” but in overkill, it has the opposite effect.

When it counts, though, “Tennessee” surprises with some nice bits, especially when it defies its roots, sends a character into an unforeseen direction or spills out a creative exchange of dialogue. Given all the familiar territory, you’d expect the guys’ search for dear old dad to conclude in equally typical fashion. It doesn’t.

Some of the surprises even come from singer-turned-actress Carey, whose work here easily surpasses her much-maligned starring role in 2001’s “Glitter,” even if she’s saddled with some rather clunky scenes, particularly the heart-of-gold waitress’ singing debut in a Nashville bar, and doesn’t always convince.

But Peck and Rothenberg carry the ball quite well for everyone involved, finding the right tone for the siblings and making them seem like real brothers. Given the dramatics at hand, they might have gone for chewy stuff, but they almost always stay in check. So there’s rarely a false moment in their relationship, and that may be the most fitting representation of what amounts to home in “Tennessee.”

Source: Johnson City Press