Tammy

As a film about a Nomad, Tammy includes the expected Redemption pattern, in confirming that she has real and definite flaws, which she eventually reduces. This makes it a helpful example of why being in sync with its generational story may not be enough.  

While the first scene has Tammy making a significant mistake while driving - one that really could have been deadly - there isn't a good indication of the source of that mistake. Particularly since it is then undermined by the other difficulties Tammy has that day, which may or may not be indicative of this same problem. Does she have a bad boss, or is she really a bad employee? Is her husband a jerk, or has she pushed him away?

Okay, fair enough to say that her husband is a jerk either way - is that the only reason the marriage has trouble?

Films that show a life falling apart may suggest that Fate has intervened, and that this is happening because of bad luck or simply because that's the starting point. In this case, though, the Old and Wise Prophet tells Tammy (and the audience) her flaw late in the film - rather late, indeed, to do anything about it within the film. While  the effects of her life are shown, the actions that brought her there are not. This effectively excludes character flaws that the film could show her overcoming. Instead, the audience is unsure whether to root for her withstanding what life is throwing at her, or to demand that she change her self-destructive behavior.

One can imagine a prologue to help with this by showing an earlier point in her life, after the problem was noticeable but before it caused the issues shown - perhaps a high school vignette:

• Tammy is a plump but popular good-natured girl who manages to have a choice of dates for the prom.
• Her Boomer grandmother  - not yet an obvious alcoholic - gives her advice like "Have a good time all the time - that is what life is all about!"
• Her doting father shows up with the Toyota Corolla as a birthday or graduation present, commenting how it will last as long as she takes care of it.
• Lenore is shown with her small but respectable pet store, with Susanne uncertain of her future but interested in following where Lenore is going.
• Just before prom, she decides to go with the handsome-if-dim Greg rather than a previously promised guy with better career prospects (maybe Keith, the fast-food manager, although that would have its own issues).
• Could be fun to have Your Love as representative of Greg and Midnight Rider as the other guy.
• Events at prom reveal and reinforce that she has a problem taking responsibility, even if it appears at first that she still has a chance for a good life. And then cut...

At which point the current start of the movie could pick up, with Tammy driving that same Toyota 15-20 years later. She's playing Your Love, which meant so much those years before... and we're off, seeing that she hasn't grown, still doing much what she did at the start. And with a clue as to what her nearly-fatal flaw is.

This would match well with a Nomad life, as graduating into the often-prosperous Unraveling can fool people into believing that an upward trajectory is inevitable. (Even if an individual's trajectory is not increasing as well as everyone's.) It might even be the case that Tammy is a female Willy Loman, albeit one who hasn't done quite as well as he had at this point in life.  Like him, she bought into expectations when she was younger, didn't update them as she grew older, and was being beat up by middle age amid the storm of the Crisis. It's not clear, indeed, that Tammy would have survived even as well as Loman - he made it to his 60s, she was heading toward a similar meltdown early in her 40s. Tammy was fortunate enough to have the wise Lenore available, while some of her life was still left to be saved.