Tully Plot Summary:
After having a third child, Marlo (Charlize Theron) is overtired on the brink of collapse. Despite her initial hesitation, she takes her brother’s (Mark Duplass) advice to hire a nighttime nanny (Mackenzie Davis) named Tully. After Tully is hired, Marlo’s life begins to improve as the two also develop a deep bond and friendship.
I give director Jason Reitman and screenwriter Diablo Cody a lot of credit for making a film that captures the hardships of motherhood in a very real way. While this is the true strength of the movie, it also feels predictable, because if you’ve been around a mother for one day, you know the beats this film is going to hit. This is merely the first act though. It’s not until Tully comes into the picture where the film truly changes. While still an entertaining movie that has its high points, all conflict seems to evaporate in the middle act. It feels more like just a few nicely written conversations until the inevitable climax, but oh boy, we’ll get there.
The first act is pretty standard, yet not standard. Charlize Theron plays Marlo. She’s in her early forties. A third kid is on the way. Her middle child (Asher Miles Fallica) has anxiety issues. Her husband (Ron Livingston) is overworked with a tough job, but it pays the bills. Money is fine, not great. The house is a tornado of toys and frozen meals. Yadda. Yadda. Yadda. You get the idea here.
Charlize Theron proves once again why she’s one of the best actors of this generation. She makes this performance look easy. It looks like she can play this challenging role in her sleep, and ironically enough, the character is sleep deprived. She goes all in. As monumental as the performance is, they probably could have utilized it even more.
Reitman chooses to focus a lot on the physical turmoil the mother takes rather than the internal pain of being overtired. You see the toll Marlo’s body is taking. You also see a lot of the external forces crumbling around her. The kid kicking the seat and screaming about wanting to park in a different lot that is already full. Stepping on legos. Spilling drinks. Again, you get the idea. It’s not that they don’t let Theron go, but at times, the movie is too focused on the stuff around Marlo.
That also leads me to screenwriter Diablo Cody’s biggest strength and weakness: her dialogue. This is of course the writer who gave us Juno. I recognize Cody’s writing is very intelligent, but it can be exhausting, almost like she’s showing off. The problem here is the dialogue is almost too good. It takes away from the character. It feels more like a writer talking, not the character. It’s very much the problem I had with Juno, but I don’t want to go down that rabbit hole today.
Sometimes the dialogue also has the opposite problem, in that it’s too on the nose. Marlo is reluctant at first to give into this nanny because she doesn’t like the idea of a weird stranger coming in at night to take care of her kid. The nanny is pushed onto her by Marlo’s wealthy brother, Craig, played effectively by Mark Duplass. Craig and his wife (Elaine Tan) are the polar opposites of Marlo’s family. Instead of frozen meals, they eat some kind of sushi that looks like a scene out of Doctor Strange. When Marlo’s son asks for chicken nuggets, their hipster nanny named Shasta (Stormy Ent) goes into a tirade about how they are made. Once again, you get the idea. They really hit you over the head on the two lifestyles.
Eventually Marlo reaches the predictable breaking point scream. Tully comes into the picture. Mackenzie Davis is very charming in the role. The two develop a good rapport. While the conversations they have are well written and entertaining, they go places you expect them to go. Yes, Tully is the free-spirit twenty something that Marlo used to be. Marlo talks about how she was an English major. Marlo laments on her fallen dreams and recapturing her youth. Once again, you get the idea. They intersperse it with a few outlandish moments, in particular one sequence with Marlo’s husband, but the relationship between Marlo and Tully is exactly what you think it’s going to be as it plays out.
While this middle act between Marlo and Tully is entertaining, the conflict in the film has completely vanished. Marlo gets better. She’s more well rested. The movie goes along its merry way until it gets to the third act, which again, is very predictable. The message of the movie is wrapped up in a neat little package that you can see coming ten miles away. I don’t necessarily mean that as a criticism though. There’s nothing wrong with that. Apparently, that wasn’t enough for Diablo Cody though.
It’s almost like Cody was afraid the movie was too predictable, so a certain something happens at the end to add an extra oomph to it. When this first happens, I groaned very loudly in the theater. People next to me even stared. It’s annoying. To be fair though, they explain it well with one scene. It makes it better. At the end of the day, the message is still the same. It’s a clever surprise, but you don’t need it.
In many ways, Tully is a very real, good natured movie, but it’s plagued by a lot of little problems. The middle act loses steam. It’s repetitive. The final kicker is unnecessary and full of plot holes.
If you can look past that stuff, it’s a solid movie about motherhood worth watching with an especially strong performance from Charlize Theron. What else is new?
Rating: 6.5 out of 10 (Slightly Better Than “Meh”)
