Film review
An authentic movie about motherhood and a classy political binge watch.
Tully
Starring Charlize Theron, Mackenzie Davis and Ron Livingstone. Directed by Jason Reitman. Written by Diablo Cody. Oscar-winning Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody burst onto the scene with the freshest of voices and now Tully sees her prove her creative mettle once gain.
Anyone who knows me knows that the shamelessly tasteless, tactless and manipulative mission by Hollywood to tap into the “Mom” market with “Bad Moms” movies makes me crazy with a disappointed and barely containable rage. They are a loathesome pot-pourri of every cliché of modern motherhood thrown into the frat-house blender of R-rated pseudocomedy. And then, praise be, there is Tully, the best kind of palette cleanser. So real you feel every single sleepless night, so intense you feel it like it’s your own story, and so rewarding to revel in the knowledge that finally we have film-makers who get what motherhood can really feel like.
I guess the target market for this movie is already very clear: mothers, book the babysitter! But this is perfect for date-night too, whether your significant other thinks so or not! Here is a classic opportunity to walk a mile in those shoes.
Charlize Theron (Mad Max: Fury Road/ Monster) once more teams up with Cody and director Jason Reitman (Thank You for Smoking/Up in the Air) after her nasty prom queen outing in Young Adult. Here she’s Marlo, a middle-class mum with two kids and another due any minute. Her husband Drew is lovable, hardworking and mostly away with the fairies when it comes to truly understanding how his wife is coping – or not coping – with parenting, especially when the third child arrives.
As Marlo quietly descends into a relentless, sleepless, breastfeeding hell, her wealthy brother Craig (Mark Duplass) begs her to take up his generous offer of a night nanny. And when Tully knocks on Marlo’s door late one night, this fabulous little film really gets cracking.
Tully is played by rising star Mackenzie Davis and the chemistry between her and Theron is joyous. Cody’s ability to articulate her own personal journey into motherhood translates so authentically between these two women, exploring the euphoria, indignities, judgement and the oftentimes confronting home truths of what it means to be a woman, mother or not.
Cody and Reitman really are a creative force to be reckoned with, as he once again draws out the kind of performances we saw not just in Juno with Ellen Page and Allison Janney, but with George Clooney and Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air and Aaron Eckhart and Maria Bello in Thank You for Smoking.
Great cinema gives you an opportunity to see and feel your own personal experiences and emotions reflected back at you, and in my view it’s these kinds of stories that can really unite an audience in a shared experience. Tully is one of those films, and I loved it.