Cast: Charlize Theron, Mackenzie Davis, Ron Livingston, Mark Duplass, Emily Haine, Crystal Lonneberg
Director: Jason Reitman
Rating: 15
Running time: 96 mins
Release date: 20/04/2018
Last week, Kate Middleton showed off her new-born Prince Louis to the world’s press: perfectly coiffed, beaming in Jenny Packham, and even wearing heels mere hours after giving birth. This week- as a result of some cosmic need for balance, surely- the world is presented with an altogether different image of third-time motherhood thanks to the unglamorous, unrelenting, and unusual new film from director Jason Reitman and writer Diablo Cody: ‘Tully’.
Marlo (Charlize Theron) is heavily pregnant with her third child, struggling to cope with the other two, and married to nice, hardworking but ultimately absent Drew (Ron Livingston aka Berger from Sex and the City). Noticing the strain, Marlo’s wealthy brother offers her the bourgeois gift of a night nanny- someone who will come over every evening and stay the night to take care of the baby. Though Marlo refuses initially, the monotony of round-the-clock childcare- outlined in a wonderful rhythmic montage of lights clicking on, baby grows being popped open, and nappies being binned- soon takes its toll. Enter Tully (Mackenzie Davis)- a young, hopelessly hip nanny who is all midriff and enlightenment, unfazed by anything and immediately indispensable. She cleans, she bakes cupcakes, and like a lusty Mary Poppins even performs the wifely duties Marlo cannot.
In another writer’s hands, a film with a hot nanny and a tired new mother would have been all about jealousy ; Cody is smart enough to acknowledge this narrative with Marlo’s furtive glances to Tully’s flat abs, but ultimately takes the high road in choosing to make it a film about a sweet and intimate female friendship instead. And it is certainly intimate- even when you don’t factor in the husband sharing, Tully wakes her new employer to push her baby onto her bare breast each night. But besides depicting a relationship that in any other workplace would result in dismissal and an enormous settlement ‘Tully’ is also an intriguing and non- traditional portrayal of motherhood.
“Such a blessing,” Marlo says early on, stroking her pregnant belly- this being the accepted rhetoric around pregnancy and the miracle of childbirth. But here the miracle is positively humdrum: Marlo and Drew scroll through their phones and nap in the hospital as they wait. And when it comes, it’s a blink and you’ll miss it moment- Reitman chooses instead to focus our attention on the rather more banal details of childbirth- Marlo wanders round wearing an adult nappy afterwards and will not be sent home until she has peed, her bump still very much visible. That more attention is given to these everyday details suggests early on that this is not in fact a film about birth at all, but one about the loss of identity that comes afterwards.
Theron- no stranger to transforming her appearance for the sake of a role- is 50lbs heavier than usual in ‘Tully’. Throughout, her body looks suitably traumatised- hunched over, with visible fat rolls, half asleep and almost permanently attached to breast pumps. She’s a strong screen presence and between her, Mackenzie Davis, and the razor-sharp dialogue the mundane, un-miraculous moments are made interesting- and even more so in the final half hour of the film.
Bechdel test approved, a lesson in character writing, a darkly funny portrait of the trials of modern life, and an arresting reminder of just how deserving Charlize Theron is of her Oscar: ‘Tully’ is many things. But it’s also a film for anyone who’s tired of extended labour scenes, emotional swells of orchestral score, and everything going back to normal as soon as the cord is cut. Yes motherhood may be mundane- but mundane has never looked so interesting before.
