Tully offers honest, complicated depiction of motherhood

Charlize Theron in Tully. Image courtesy Focus Features.

The harshest idea in the wonderfully acerbic Tully is the perfect mother. As described by weary parent Marlo (a great Charlize Theron), the ideal mother bakes cupcakes for her children's class, keeps a pristine home, is committed mind and body to her children. Her ideal is a woman who gives without ever needing to take, and it contrasts against her dream of returning to the free, carefree existence she once had. It puts Marlo in an unwinnable situation, unable to become what she feels she must be but unable to shed the thoughts of her once very cool life she still harbors. Marlo is somewhere in between, a broken person trying to hold together three young children while maintaining the idea that everything is fine. But Tully isn’t about holding things together, but being brave enough to admit when you’re falling apart.

Writer Diablo Cody, whose script packs an emotional wallop and her signature sense of humor, doesn't hurl the world at Marlo and expect her to handle the borderline impossibilities of motherhood. Cody and director Jason Reitman show just how hard it can be to juggle three children and a husband (Ron Livingston) moderately invested in the situation. Marlo needs help, and she gets it from the eponymous free-spirited night nurse Tully (Mackenzie Davis), whose job is to watch Marlo's newborn daughter, but whose duty is to give Marlo a break from the constant stress pouring down upon her. Tully is both brutal in its depiction of Marlo's life – a short montage outlines how repetitive and frustrating the experience can be – and sympathetic to its character's plight. Being a parent is not an easy job, especially with a newborn. And it’s exacerbated by a middle child often described as “quirky”, a euphemism designed to avoid talking about exactly what’s going on with the child while simultaneously insulting them. Marlo's eruption over the use of the term by a school administrator is wildly satisfying, yet it’s also a little heartbreaking because it reflects just how close to the edge Marlo has gotten. Her anger was righteous, but slightly misplaced. It’s difficult for a movie to show that with the amount of subtly Tully does, a credit to both Cody’s writing and Theron’s performance.

Marlo's outburst, her frequent dips into self-loathing putdowns, her lack of energy in life reveal a person who is very much not in a good place. They're also obvious indicators, clear signs that something isn't right, a point Marlo’s husband and brother (Mark Duplass) comment on. They, like Marlo herself, miss who she used to be. Diagnosing someone who is sad constantly is relatively easy though. Being able to tell when someone is not OK while everything appears to be fine is a far more difficult task. Even as Tully's presence appears to make Marlo's life easier, even as Marlo tries to turn her life around with exercise and satisfying certain needs, the underlying reasons for her initial frustration are still there. Parenthood is filled with obfuscation, largely directed at keeping the child from worrying about the world around them. But parents lie to themselves too, because pretending things are OK is just as easy for the parent as it is for the child. Being a parent is horrifying in its own way, with the additional obligations and the need to hide so much in order to say this is fine. That everything is fine.

Tully doesn't believe in obfuscation, and she pushes Marlo to embrace her needs and her desires, to no longer try to pretend that everything is fine. In Tully, the only way to get around that thinking is to be honest with yourself, to allow for things not to be OK and to ask for help along the way. Nothing is ever really fine, especially when a person tries to do too much by themselves. It's honesty that ultimately serves Marlo best in Tully, both with her situation as a mother and her role as a mother. Marlo isn't the free spirit she used to be, nor is she that perfect mother she aspires to be either. Instead, she’s a better mother because she’s found a way to balance who she was with the person she is now. Everything still isn’t fine, but she’s about as OK as she can be.

Review: Four and a half out of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer.

Rating: R

Run time: 96 minutes

Genre: Drama

Ask Away
Target audience: Mothers and fans of Diablo Cody's one-liners.

Take the whole family?: The dialog and topic makes it a bad choice for families. It would work though as a date night option though.

Theater or Netflix?: It’s good enough to head to the theater.

Is Charlize Theron underappreciated?: As an actress it feels like she doesn't get anywhere near the credit she deserves for pulling off such a wide range of characters. It takes a lot of talent to shift from an indelible badass like Furiosa and a brawler like Atomic Blonde's Lorraine to a harangued mother like Marlo and the sharp-tongued Mavis in Young Adult, and I don’t think she has earned the kudos she deserves for succeeding at it.

Watch this as well?: Diablo Cody and Jason Reitman make a pretty good team. Their other two collaborations, Juno and Young Adult, are pretty great watches that line up pretty well with Tully.