Tumbledown is a romantic comedy set in a small-time Maine town. Hannah (Rebecca Hall) is already a widow: her husband, a gifted singer and songwriter, recorded one album before his untimely death in a hiking accident. The record touched many fans deeply and their excitement about it has made it into a cult album.
Hannah is still grieving and has decided to write a biography about his short life and music. To keep her active, a middle-aged friend (Griffin Dunne), who runs a local newspaper, regularly gives her human interest stories to write up. She has sex with a local stud but has no romantic attachment to him. Best of all, Hannah revels in the humorous antics of her two dogs who provide her with all the pleasure she can handle during this transitional time in her life.
Hannah is very protective of the details of her talented husband's work. When Andrew (Jason Sudeikis), a Manhattan American Studies professor, arrives on the scene to do an interview with her, she is very uncooperative and antagonistic, especially when he tells her that he wants to make her husband immortal. But after squabbling with the academic and trying to discern his true intentions, Hannah agrees to work with him on a biography.
Director Sean Mewshaw and screenplay writer Desiree Van Til have made two excellent choices in the casting of Rebecca Hall and Jason Sudeikis in the lead roles. Their characters are head people uneasy with dealing with their emotions, and they have a lot to learn from each other. The unraveling of facts about Hannah's husband accelerates their mutual quest. Tumbledown honors the mystery of human beings and their odd ways of surviving, sharing, and caring for each other.
