"It'll be like a Lifetime movie with the nanny who kills the family and the mom survives and she has to walk with a cane at the end."
Jason Reitman has always been deeply fascinated with people
in their own habitat. His best films certainly reflect the method of studying a
character within the domain in which they are most comfortable and gradually
peeling back the layers of their own persona. How layered and nuanced he is in
this approach acts as a measurement of how each particular project weighs up. Regardless
of the final product though, there’s always a level of intrigue going into a
film by Reitman.
Marlo (Charlize Theron) is a New York suburbanite who's
about to give birth to her third child. Her second son has a rare developmental
disorder. Meanwhile her husband, despite being a loving and supportive figure,
remains clueless about the demands that motherhood puts on his wife. When the
baby is born, Marlo's wealthy brother hires a night time nanny named Tully
(Mackenzie Davis) to help his sister handle the workload.
The premise of ‘Tully’ certainly fits in with Reitman’s
usual forte as a filmmaker, with the film observing just a sparse handful of
characters and rarely moving location over the course of its runtime. But in
doing so Reitman once again showcases his skill of observing and dissecting
people for their inner qualities. I imagine it is one of the aspects that actors
must relish when working with him. It gives them a chance to put aside
distractions regarding a convoluted plot and instead focus completely on
developing a fully realised character.
Charlize Theron has proven herself as one of the best actors
of this era on multiple occasions, so it would take a lot for a performance of
hers so surprise me. Yet ‘Tully’ does just that as Theron portrays a character
with such intimacy and warmth that I feel I’ve never quite seen from her
before. It’s such a departure from her tour de force performances in ‘Monster’
and ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ in which she plays damaged people hardened to the
world around them. ‘Tully’ gives her a chance to a vulnerability that is deeply
moving to behold. But what makes it even more impactful is how Theron bestows
such a sense of inner strength to the character. Both Theron’s performance and
the movie as a whole act as a touching tribute to motherhood.
It would be easy to focus purely on Theron, but the small
supporting cast around her are also terrific in their respective roles. Davis
adds enough ambiguity to Tully as a character that as a viewer you empathise
with Marlo’s own doubts at first and subsequently experience each surprise and
revelation about her personality as Marlo does. Ron Livingstone also makes for
a reassuring presence as Marlo’s husband Drew. He plays the character with a level
of sympathy that’s refreshing when the character could so easily have descended
into a one note neglectful type.
This is where Diablo Cody’s screenplay works wonders because
it consistently renders the characters of the story as complex individuals. There’s
no cinematic shorthand or lazy generalisations. Instead Cody takes the time to
endear his audience to each character on some level, and then slowly opens them
up for the audience to observe. It’s gradual and perfectly paced to the film’s
runtime, never coming across as contrived or melodramatic. This approach is
perfectly matched by Reitman’s direction which possesses a deep affection for
observing these characters, to a point where the camera itself seems hurt by
their pain and struggles.
Another aspect that is treated with a refreshing amount of
nuance and variety is the tone of the film itself. There are so many moments at
which ‘Tully’ could risk coming across as depressingly sombre but Cody’s dialogue
and Reitman’s direction keep the proceedings entertaining when they need to be.
The moments of comedy that are spread across the struggles of these people only
work to endear the audience to them even more, whilst making the movie more
impressive as it reaches a wider spectrum of human emotion. But adding comedy
brings another risk, wherein a film can easily undercut its own drama with not
enough weight. But once again ‘Tully’ treads the tonal tightrope excellently.
Though the story is sparse, being driven more by characters
and emotion than outside occurrences ‘Tully’ flies by at a welcome pace. It
never overstays its welcome and hardly feels empty either. My only gripe would
be that the third act does descend into some contrived melodrama to further the
plot. It’s not that these plot points are not justified, but they do clash with
the low key tone at which the rest of the movie unfolds, since it suddenly
plunges into a faster form of storytelling. But aside from that, ‘Tully’ is consistently
effective in the area it most wants to be, emotional resonance.
Emotionally endearing and punctuated with fully realised
characters that contain a plethora of nuance, ‘Tully’ sees Jason Reitman delivering
his usual brand of comedic drama.
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