Towheads

Towheads is a 2013 dramatic feature-length film written and directed by Shannon Plumb, who also stars in the lead role. The film breaks boundaries with its innovative and moving storytelling style, and offers a realistic depiction of an artist's struggle to balance family and career. This American-Swedish co-production features Derek Cianfrance and his real-life sons Cody and Walker Cianfrance. The film premiered at the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival.

The narrative revolves around Penny, played by Plumb, an idle housewife and mother of two young boys in Brooklyn who, with a husband frequently away on work trips, finds herself dancing on the edge of humor and desolation. Her husband, Matt, is played by Plumb's real-life husband, Derek Cianfrance, most well-known for his directorial work on films such as "Blue Valentine" and "The Place Beyond the Pines."

Towheads contains elements of Plumb’s own life but with a surrealist twist, skillfully blended in an artistic depiction of everyday reality. The film unfolds the struggle of Penny as she grapples with the tribulations of life. While giving her all to raise the children and manage the household, Penny, who is also an aspiring artist, wrestles to find a creative outlet for herself.

Her sons, Cody and Walker, portray her tow-headed children who are unintentionally wreaking havoc throughout their Brooklyn neighborhood. While these two tykes keep Penny on her toes, they also serve as her inspiration, sometimes triggering her hilariously creative coping mechanisms and often inspiring her artistic pursuits.

The film makes excellent use of comedy - slapstick, mix-ups, and dressing up - not merely for laughs, but to underscore the essence of Penny's life. Her attempts to juggle her roles as artist, wife, and mother often border on absurd, yet there's an underlying realness to these embarrassments and eventual resiliences that gives the audience a profound sense of empathy for Penny. The antics she gets up to, including wearing outrageous wigs and even trying out different personas, provide comic relief while also demonstrating her yearning for something more than her mundane homemaking existence.

The film is an insightful exploration of a woman confronting her own creative limitations amidst the demands of familial responsibilities and societal expectations. Plumb includes dialogues that highlight this core concern, where the feeling of invisibility in one's own life takes center stage. There is a strong focus on the visual medium, with rich inventions in the depiction of character's inner world.

Plumb's directorial style is unique and non-traditional. The film often blurs the line between reality and surrealism, using the medium of film, not to create an escape, but as a way to explore ordinary, often overlooked aspects of life. Plumb's innovative storytelling, aided by an intimate home-movie-like aesthetic and extraordinary soundscape, makes Towheads a compelling contemplation of female creativity and domesticity.

Despite her surrealist tendencies, Plumb’s narrative is grounded solidly in the reality of motherhood, capturing the never-ceasing whirlwind of daily chores, the inescapable noise, the constant energy, and routine revolving around children, yet skillfully hinting at the existential questioning stirring beneath the surface.

On the performances front, Plumb offers a heartfelt performance. Her character Penny, well-rounded and dynamic, grows organically throughout the film, reflecting the subtle journey of acceptance and self-discovery. The children's performances are impressively authentic, offering a vivid portrayal of their characters.

Towheads, a heartfelt family drama, is a poignant exploration of the challenges of parenting, the search for identity amid routine domesticity, and the intense yearning for creative fulfillment. It’s a warmly inviting presentation of one woman’s journey that is touching, funny, and human – a narrative experience that’s set apart by its distinctive authorial voice.