Tully is the new movie starring Oscar winner Charlize
Theron [Monster (2003), Young Adult (2011), Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)] about the trials and tribulations of an
exhausted mother of three small kids, including a newborn infant.
Tully was written by Diablo Cody and
directed by Jason Reitman, the same team that gave us Juno (2007)
and Young
Adult (2011). I liked Juno as a quirky, satirical comedy with cute,
charming high school protagonists (Ellen Page and Michael Cera). That movie has
a back story about a yuppie couple that comes apart because the husband (Jason
Bateman) is stuck in adolescence and can't come to grips with adult
responsibilities. In Young Adult, Theron played a yuppie woman who’s
stuck on her high school glory days and can't come to grips with adult
responsibilities. Juno worked, because it focuses on the kids and their coming
of age story; Bateman's character is a mere sketch, and a creepy one at
that. Young Adult didn't work, because it focuses on the
creepy character and doesn't really know what to do with her.
Tully is also about a woman’s
difficulties coping with adult responsibilities - in this case trying to raise
three small children while running a household and holding down a full-time job
– but there the similarities dwindle. Theron’s character is called Marlo, and
when we first meet her she is nine-months pregnant, and really huge. It’s all
well and good to use pregnancy prosthetics to make svelt actresses look large,
and I understand that Theron is a pretty big girl at 5’ 10” or so, but the
make-up department went a bit overboard on her. Margo looks like she’s carrying
quints. No wonder she’s tired all the time.
Taking care of her two kids, Sarah
who’s in first or second grade, and Jonah in kindergarten, is hard enough -
particularly Jonah, a mostly sweet kid who is wont to throw tantrums at inopportune moments and
seems to suffer some sort of emotional disorder or is on the spectrum or has ADHD
or something. The principal at his tony school just says he’s “quirky”, while suggesting
that he may need a full time aide or maybe even move to another school. As if
Marlo doesn’t have enough trouble as it is. Once we get the basic set-up, Marlo
has her baby and gets to add sleep deprivation to her list of problems.
Marlo’s got a husband, Drew [Ron
Livingston – Lucky (2017), Boardwalk Empire (2013)], but although
he seems to be a nice guy and sympathetic to Marlo, he is no help at all,
working long hours and then playing video games when he comes home. She does
the cooking, cleaning, shuttling Sarah and Jonah to school, plus diaper changes,
breast feeding, and most everything else pertaining to their newborn. [Presumably, there’s some sort of childcare during the day, but this is not
actually mentioned in the film; and just
as oddly, Marlo’s alleged job as an HR manager is alluded to but never shown – questionable
choices given the premise of the movie.]
Marlo’s well-to-do, self-satisfied but
well-meaning brother, Craig (a smarmy Mark Duplass) notices how fatigued and
bedraggled Marlo is, and suggests that she engage a “night nanny”, like he and
his perfect wife did. That way, she can get some sleep while the nanny can handle
most overnight baby care duties. [I had never even heard of such a service, but
apparently night nannies are a real thing.
Enter Tully [Mackenzie Davis - Blade
Runner 2049 (2017)] a mid-twenties miracle worker for Marlo, with an
assured, take-charge attitude. She promises not just to help with infant care
but with Marlo’s life. “You can’t treat the part without treating the whole”,
she declares. And she delivers, too. Marlo’s life does seem to get better, to
renormalize. She wakes up refreshed. One morning there are even freshly baked
goods awaiting her on the kitchen table. Marlo can enjoy her kids again; she
remembers what it’s like to smell the roses, so to speak.
We know that something more’s
going to happen. Not much of a story otherwise. We fear that Tully is too good
to be true. Perhaps she’s got an evil side? Well there is a twist, and I’m not
going to spill it (or spoil it) for you. It’s safe to say that the third act is
dramatic, but I also can assure you that this is not a horror movie. It’s the ending, at least in part, that
has produced the controversy.
See, we begin to suspect
part-way through Tully that Marlo’s problem may be more than simple exhaustion. In fact, the film is about something deeper - the very real psychological stress experienced
by many women associated with childbirth – sometimes as a trigger for postpartum
depression and/or, rarely but also more seriously, postpartum psychosis. Seems
that the so-called Mommy Lobby is upset at the movie’s portrayal of Marlo’s condition,
sees the film as an insult to all mothers out there suffering from maternal
mental illness, and so forth. To which I say, hogwash.
First of all, this is a
narrative film, a Hollywood movie, not a documentary. Second it is not and does
not purport to be about all women, or even about all women with psychological
issues around childbirth. As if there could be. It’s about one (fictional)
woman and her problems. A story, by the way, written by Diablo Cody, herself a
mother who has said she’s had some of these issues herself. It seems to me that
drawing attention to these conditions, sparking conversations about them, is a
good thing.
No, the problem with Tully
is simply that it’s not a very good picture. Corners have been cut. The
characters are not fleshed out. I’ve mentioned the “HR job” and the lack of any
daytime childcare reference. Some other examples: Drew is barely there; there
is no sense of the relationship between him and Marlo. Don’t they talk? Don’t
they argue? Does Marlo have any friends? At all? Would the administrator of a
high end private elementary school really avoid talking to a mother about issues
raised by her child’s disruptive behavior, such as ADHD or autism or other
possible conditions, instead referring to the behavior only as “quirky”? I
don’t think so.
On the other hand, the story
is conversation provoking – a good thing, as I’ve said. And, as Marlo and
Tully, Theron and Davis each are terrific. No surprise from Theron and a
pleasant one from Davis. Their performances help keep the project above water.
96 minutes
Grade: B-
In general release.
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