+ Most Undeserved Flop of the Year
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| Charlize Theron as the protagonist who's swamped by motherhood and here has it virtually plastering her face on this lovely poster for Jason Reitman's Tully |
Marlo is already the mother of two, of which son Jonah is especially challenging, and is now about to give birth to her and her husband's third, an unplanned child. Somewhere along the way, Marlo has lost connection with herself, as a sprightly night-nanny appears to help her out.
Tully is written by Diablo Cody (Young Adult (2011)) and directed as the 7th feature by great Quebecker filmmaker Jason Reitman (Labor Day (2013)). Tully is the name of the somewhat mysterious, whimsical free-spirit night-nanny, who comes to the rescue for Marlo.
Charlize Theron (Prometheus (2012)) gives a simultaneously courageous, moving and frightening powerhouse performance as Marlo, one that makes it feel as if she really must know about the burdensome plights of motherhood personally, (she undoubtedly does, though not the biological aspect, as her own two children are adopted.) The degree to which Marlo has gotten out of whack mentally and personally sticks deeper than we may think initially, and Theron's wild performance hints at this several times, where red lamps ought to be blinking for the discerning viewer. - Although we constantly also want to give her the benefit of the doubt, as also seems to be the case with her nice but too passive husband, (finely played by Ron Livingston (The End of the Tour (2015)).) Theron touched on the same miserable state in The Burning Plain (2008), but in this case there is more depth and connection to her desperation. SPOILER Tully takes a surprising turn in its third act, which highlights the maternal depression as a phenomenon that needs to be taken really serious, and it makes Marlo's inner pain pungent and moving; becoming a parent isn't only a blessing, it is also a process in which you lose portions of what you thought you were, and Tully resides in this perplexing area with weight and integrity.
Mackenzie Davis (Plato's Reality Machine (2013)) is delightful as the ever-changing, pro-active, insightful Tully, and Asher Miles Fallica (Ozark (2017), TV-series) and Lia Frankland (Betting on the Bride (2017), TV movie) are both natural and lovely as the siblings.
Tully also has several funny moments. One of the best: A running scene, in which Theron, - who reportedly gained an impressive 50 pounds for the role, - overtakes a younger woman, only to collapse before the girl, who seems genuinely disturbed at the sight. Reitman is also a terrific, smart montage filmmaker, and Tully has a great montage of the doldrums of motherhood, and a later car sequence to several Cyndi Lauper tracks. - What a sweet delight that was, and what a great, debate-inspiring film Tully is. It may be especially meaningful for couples dealing with the throngs of parenthood together. Thank you, Reitman and Co.!
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Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: Unknown (but Reitman, Diablo and Theron's latest, and similarly scoped collaboration, Young Adult (2011), had a 12 mil. cost, so we can assume Tully's cost to be in that neighborhood)
Box office: 5.5 mil. $ and counting
= Too early to say - but has a long way to go to become profitable theatrically
[Tully premiered 23 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 96 minutes. Cody has stated that she wrote the script as a form of therapy after her third birth, unable to write the Barbie film she was supposed to be working on, and that Tully saved her life. Shooting took place in New York and Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada from September 2016 - ?. Theron has stated that it took her 1½ years to get rid of the 50 pounds again, during which she also experienced her first depression. The film opened #6 to a small 3.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it is playing right now. It will soon open in Sweden (18 May), Indonesia (23 May), Brazil and Thailand (24 May), Germany and Greece (31 May), Norway (1 June), Portugal (7 June), Finland (11 June), France (27 June), Italy (28 June), Belgium (11 July) and Russia (12 July). With a Fall release, Tully might have been an Oscar contender with a stronger domestic gross, but Reitman is scheduled to return later this year with The Front Runner (2018), which may be his big awards bid; it is a political biopic led by Hugh Jackman. Theron returned in Gringo (2018). Tully is certified fresh at 87 % with a 7.7 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Tully?
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