May 1, 2018 2 min to read

Tully

Tully is funnier, weirder, and more resonant than you'd expect.

by Zach Saul

Tully is a really intimate story that displays with tremendous sensitivity, the realities of motherhood. From depression to squeezing out milk involuntarily in a grungy bar bathroom we see the funny, gross, and uncomfortable all in the same 90 minutes. What makes this movie noteworthy is how it juxtaposes Marlo’s (Charlize Theron) worst fears with her greatest fantasies. It’s almost Louie-esque (Louie C.K’s FX Show). I wondered at different points whether Tully was Theron’s alter-ego, and that speaks to how effective Mackenzie Davis and Charlize Theron were on screen together. The reason they work so well together is that Theron has mastered the art of playing the moody misunderstood protagonist, and Davis the pixie-dream girl who breaks the misunderstood protagonist out of their slump. In this case, that misunderstood protagonist takes an unfamiliar shape to most moviegoers (a suburban mom), but it was very easy to grab onto Margo’s thirst for authenticity in her interactions and the outside world.

Although Tully says it’s about motherhood, I think it’s more specifically concerned with how motherhood changes a woman, and not as much about raising children. Margo doesn’t just spend her days worrying about her family, Marlo is worried her best years are behind her - and stress has ruined her impulsive, creative self. (This is a fear Margo and I share and I’m only 26) It’s the latter exploration - of Marlo’s self-discovery that really sores in Tully, and the movie weaves in sexual tension between Craig (Mark Duplass) Margot and Tully, in a very interesting way.

Tully (Mackenzie Davis) is a fantastically creepy but ultimately kind representation of Marlo’s fantasy - and it’s those unsettling moments in my opinion that make their interactions riveting. As a night nanny Tully possesses an uncanny ability to know exactly what Marlo needs each and every day, and it causes confusion, attraction, jealousy, and eventually acceptance between the two. At several moments Theron looks at her husband in disbelief to say: “she just….knew exactly what to do…!?” in utter disbelief.

The Good: Charlize Theron and Mackenzie Davis’ performances in Tully are outstanding, and hypothetically if there was a chemistry oscar award, I think this pair deserves a nomination. The characters are written as flawed and complex people, and their problems are treated with sensitivity and care. There’s a well executed “magical realism” moment at the end when Margo crashes her car - that (unlike countless movies that attempt it) actually lands, and deepens our understanding of Tully.

The Bad: It’s not the world’s most ambitious movie - but not all stories need to be. The two children might as well have been corner ficuses in Tully - I think the movie works without them, but it would have been interesting to see what the narrative looked like had they taken on a larger role.