“I haven’t had my whole treated in a long time” says Marlo Monroe, in a double entendre that resonates throughout TULLY, the Diablo Cody written and Jason Reitman directed film that plays like a Millennial Mary Poppins.
Movie begins with Marlo in the late stage of her third pregnancy – she already has a daughter and a son who is a special needs kid. His school, St. Vitus, calls him quirky, to which Marlo enquires in a fit of pique, “Do I have a kid or a ukulele?”
She’s girding her loins for the sleep deprivation to pile on top of caring for two youngsters. Her husband, Drew, is extra busy at work and will be away interstate a few times.
Her brother, Craig, who has made a bit of coin, offers to pay for a night nanny, to help ease the burden.
The night nanny comes in the form of Tully, a free spirited 20 something, a kindred spirit of Marlo’s youth.
TULLY is screenwriter Diablo Cody’s third collaboration with director Jason Reitman, a working relationship that began with Cody’s Academy award winning script for Juno, and continued with Young Adult, the film that brought Charlize Theron into the coterie of creatives.
Charlize Theron stars as Marlo in another stand-out performance from this uber versatile actress. Theron’s comedic sensibility is well-suited to her character, who is quick with a deadpan wisecrack and excels at creative profanity. Marlo also delights in teasing her daughter with morbid jokes
As the titular Tully, Mackenzie Davis is a sheer delight, neatly navigating between the knowledgeable and naive aspects of her character.
Ron Livingston is just right as Drew, the daggy devoted dad and husband who is caring and conscientious but also a little clueless about the full extent motherhood stretches his spouse.
The film accurately depicts the wealth of invisible labour that’s performed by women all the time. Marlo is married to a lovely guy, a good father, but she’s performing three, four, five times the labour for their family that he is. Because she does it in the domestic space on maternity leave, her workday never begins or ends; it’s just this infinite cycle of tending to others without getting any recognition for it. TULLY shows how that spiritually depletes a person, as well as physically drains them.
As we’ve come to expect from the delicious pen of Diablo Cody, the writing is coruscating, a comedy with unforced pathos peppered with zinger lines that resonate in bare faced truth – “Women don’t heal. Look closely we are full of concealer.”
One of the surprising delights is the inclusion of a cover version of the James Bond title song “You Only Live Twice” by guitar/piano duo Beulahbelle, played over a gorgeous montage sequence.
TULLY is a sophisticated comedy the perfect picture for Mothers Day.