A darkly funny and perceptive comedy about motherhood,
depression, and dreams deferred, “Tully” brings director Jason Reitman and
screenwriter Diablo Cody together for their third successful collaboration
after “Juno” and “Young Adult.”
The pair
also reunite with their “Young Adult” star Charlize Theron, who plays Marlo, an overwhelmed 40-something wife and mother raising
two children, with a third on the way. Marlo’s daily
existence has been subsumed by the exhaustion of raising a daughter and dealing
with the special needs of a neuroatypical son whose
“quirky” behavior his school has grown increasingly unable to deal
with.
Her husband
Drew (Ron Livingston) — with whom she shares a stable, but not terribly
exciting, marriage — is little help. Drew’s a decent guy, happy to help with
homework and making lunches, but during those endless days he’s off to work or
away on business, the lion’s share of the childcare responsibilities fall to Marlo. During Drew’s nights at home, he joins the family
for dinner, then adjourns upstairs to play video games before conking out and
waking up to do it all over again.
Lost in the
quotidian monotony of feedings, diaper changes, and breast pumping, Marlo doesn’t have a single moment for herself. And between
the exhaustion and constant stress of needy children, Marlo
feels she’s slowly losing her mind.
Sensing Marlo nearing the end of her rope, her wealthy brother Craig
(Mark Duplass) hires her a night nanny to come in during the evening hours to
look after her newborn. He makes a vague, pointed reference to a postpartum
depression following her last pregnancy, and he’s worried she may be sprinting
toward another breakdown.
Marlo’s resistant at first, wary of allowing a stranger to
raise her child, even for a few hours during the night. Visions of murderously
unhinged nannies out of a dozen bad Lifetime movie whirl through her head, but
after a particularly difficult day, she reaches her limit and finally agrees.
Enter
free-spirited, 26-year-old Tully (a wonderful Mackenzie Davis). Like a
millennial Mary Poppins, she tends to the infant through the night, gently
waking Marlo for feedings, but allowing her the
chance to get the full night’s sleep she’s been deprived of for years. With
that renewed energy, Marlo’s suddenly able to not
only reconnect with the woman she once was, but become the mother she’s always
wished she could be. Tully is a miracle, and Marlo
doesn’t know how she ever lived without her.
Tully sees
it as her duty not only to care for the new baby, but its mother as well,
and gradually she becomes more of a friend and confidante to Marlo. The evolving relationship between the two women
forms the crux of the movie, though both women aware that, by the nature of
their professional agreement, it isn’t sustainable. Theron and Davis have a
wonderful chemistry during their characters’ long conversations; Theron’s
flinty weariness contrasts delightfully with Davis’ warm, somewhat enigmatic
portrayal.
After years
struggling to be taken seriously as an actress, Theron finally broke through
with her Oscar-winning portrayal of serial killer Aileen Wuornos
in “Monster,” and she hasn’t stopped proving that she’s one of the most
talented and versatile actresses working today. She gives another extraordinary
performance here; her face a mask of fatigue, Theron lets glimmers of the
young, fun person Marlo used to be to break through
every so often, making it all the more heartbreaking that they’re so rare.
“Tully” was
inspired by Cody’s experiences raising three children of her own, and her
script is detailed and observant in a way that’s brutally honest about the
decidedly unglamourous side of motherhood. Becoming a
parent means giving up on the idea of living entirely for oneself, but can too
often mean losing track of who that person was in the first place.
There’s a
risky shift late in the film that sends the narrative spinning in a new
direction. At first, the shift didn’t seem entirely necessary, but it’s grown
in resonance the more I’ve thought about it, and I suspect it might very well
play better upon a second viewing.
As it goes
on, the film touches on some universal ideas, about how we set certain
expectations for the course our lives will take, and the way those paths can
shift imperceptibly over time without our realizing it. Those alterations
aren’t necessarily good or bad, the film argues, though evaluating our
happiness based solely on how closely we stick to those original paths is a
recipe for misery.
Sometimes
resembling an adult fairytale, “Tully” offers a take on motherhood that’s a
more melancholy and significantly darker than “Juno,” though its emotional,
humane character study is something of a return to form for Reitman after the
missteps of “Labor Day” and “Men, Women & Children.” Through bracing
honesty, the film presents its audience with plenty of opportunities to laugh
and wince in recognition, whether you’re a new parent or not.
This article appears in May 9-15, 2018.
