New Release Review: Tully

Tully

(2018. Director: Jason Reitman. Starring: Charlize Theron, Mackenzie Davis, Ron Livingston, Mark Duplass)

SYNOPSIS:
Margo (Charlize Theron) is the mother of two young children with a third on the way. After being overwhelmed with the stresses of parenthood she accepts her brother's suggestion of hiring a 'night nanny' to help her get some sleep. However once the nanny comes into her life it is changed in more ways than she could have ever predicted.

"The first half of our lives is ruined by our parents," the author and cartoonist Clarence Day once wrote, "and the second half by our children." A little harsh maybe, but it's a more honest appraisal of family life than all the fawning schmaltz we tend to expect from Hollywood films about motherhood. A lot has been written recently about the lack of good, complex roles for women (and especially for women over 40) in mainstream American cinema and despite some strong strides in the right direction it sometimes still feels as if talented actresses are expected to spend most of their careers stuck within one of the horribly regressive, medieval conceits of femininity (i.e. that once they "age out" of being able to play the virginal 'maiden' they are expected to only take on roles as either a nurturing 'mother' or if -god forbid- their career survives long enough, an elderly 'crone'.) Even within that central grouping, roles seem to be drawn to one of two poles: either the overbearingly protective parent who just loves too much or the selfish, abusive monster who is the bane of their child's existence. Even in more nuanced and sensitive work, such as Sean Baker's excellent The Florida Project from last year, the audience is still often expected to view these relationships through the eyes of the child. As is sadly often the case in real life, the mother is expected to play a supporting role in her own story. This is a trend that Diablo Cody and Jason Reitman intend to break with their latest drama-comedy Tully.

Having already tackled a very different look at pregnancy in their joint breakthrough Juno and then re-teaming to look at resisting the responsibilities of adulthood in Young Adult (also starring Charlize Theron), Tully feels like a natural progression of Cody and Reitman's creative collaborations. It's an effective partnership which seems to bring the best out of each artist, with the director bringing a touching humanity to his writer's acerbic cynicism while she brings a biting wit which enlivens his films which otherwise can tend towards anaemic melodrama. Touching on themes that run through their previous projects, Tully may just be their best work to date.

Despite the film being named Tully, our protagonist is actually Margo (Charlize Theron) a young mother expecting her third child. She keeps up the expected veneer of domestic bliss; she only refers to her current, unexpected pregnancy as 'a blessing' and has nothing but praise for the support of her husband, Drew (Ron Livingstone). He in truth spends the majority of his scenes either unconscious or immersing himself so deep into video games to not notice the world around him. The family's lack of the money or time they need is instead telegraphed subtly through the film's excellent costume and production design (Margo's clothes are mostly stretched and stained, her home is covered in the remains of microwave meals and unwashed dishes, there is no sign that their new daughter has a bedroom to eventually sleep in.) At night Margo dreams of mermaids, effortlessly manoeuvring around the beautiful ocean, when in the real world she is drowning and the world simply waves back as she sinks. One early montage sequence shows the endless chores and stresses of her everyday life with increasingly frantic, rhythmic editing resulting in one of the most anxiety inducing scenes seen on film this year. Margo feels herself dying a little bit every day and is starting to wonder how much of her is left to keep moving forward.

Thankfully, there is a solution at hand. On a visit to her smugly overprivileged brother (Mark Duplass), Margo is given the details of a 'Night Nanny' who can be hired to watch her newborn and allow her to finally get some much needed sleep. Enter the titular Tully (Mackenzie Davis), arriving almost a third of the way into the film but instantly changing its whole structure and atmosphere. (It's not an accident that the very first time that Margo's baby daughter's name is first heard in the film when she is being introduced to her). Tully invades the film like an almost supernatural presence, full of weird scientific trivia and new-agey philosophising, she clashes wildly with this world of numbing mundanity but yet inserts herself into it with ease like a hipster Mary Poppins (although where Julie Andrews's magical babysitter focussed on inspiring the children in spite of their suffragette mother's absence,Tully seems more interested in encouraging her employers struggle for self-automony.) It's a jarring shift in gears at first but one the film fully acknowledges (at one point Margo wonders if she's in one of those 'TV movies where everyone ends up dead and the mother walks with a cane at the end.'') Tully is odd and sometimes off-putting but Margo accepts her not least because she is the first person in the film to truly see Margo for who she is and what she is going through.

For much of the runtime Tully plays out almost like a strange romance between these two very different but complimentary women. As this relationship progresses we begin to see Margo for the complex, passionate woman she is when allowed to exist outside her duties as a wife and mother. Eventually the film takes some unexpected twists which greatly complicate this central relationship and how we perceive it. This part of the plot is certain to divide audiences as it simplifies some of the interesting complexities at the film's heart (and it feels relatively unnecessary as the story had already successfully communicated it's themes without requiring any contrivance to hammer it home). However it does manage to tie things up in a conclusion which feels deeply compassionate without downplaying the darker undertones often ignored in this type of story.

This desire to subvert cliche is Tully's greatest strength. The basic set-up feels like it could have been easily lifted from a trite Lifetime movie full of overlit sets and big hammy speeches about the 'miracle of children.' Alternatively Margo's despair and cynicism could easily be used as a set up for a trashy 'outrageous' comedy about a mum who is 'off the chain' and spitting, snarky obscenities at all in her path. (For example, 2016's Bad Moms tried to have it both ways featuring both a music video-esque montage of drunken mayhem and it's heroine inspiringly out-momming her rivals in a campaign for PTA leadership). Tully hints towards these tropes but never forgets the emotional realities that provoked them. Margo's love for her family is never in doubt but neither does the film ever downplay just how exhausting they can be. When she does finally cut loose the film remembers that there are good reasons why she hasn't done so before and doesn't hide from those uncomfortable realities. One scene, where Margo tears into a school administrator for her impersonal falseness when discussing her neurologically atypical son, would play as a rousing call-to-arms in a lesser movie. Here, however, it is still powerfully scathing and righteous but the emotional rawness with which Charlize Theron projects her anger feels nothing short of frightening. In fact, one of the film's smartest moves is that it avoids simplifying it's central struggle to being Margo versus the world. There are no obvious villains here. Her husband Drew is shown as distant and thoughtless but is never allowed to become a one-note antagonist. The film takes time to show him as a caring, loving father and hint that his negligence towards his wife is a byproduct of his own similar burnout caused by his unfairly demanding job rather than any malice or resentment towards his family. Equally, Margo's condescending brother could have easily been merely a stereotype of rich arrogance (the film does get some mileage from their cartoonish opulence) but we are still shown that his actions are inspired by love for his sister and a desire to rebuild the relationship they once had. Margo's enemy she must overcome, as well as the love interest she must get to know and understand, is herself. This is a film about a woman struggling to find her own voice in order to demand the help and the respect she deserves (and desperately requires.) In contrast, Tully (both the movie and the character) has a clear voice and howls forth a cry that is aching, tender and deeply empathic. I suggest you listen to it.

Review by The Mogul.