When "Tully" begins, we see Marlo (Charlize Theron) in the final days of her third pregnancy. She's brushing her son's body. He's a kindergartner with special needs. Often labeled "quirky." He's a lot to handle. She has an 8-year-old daughter. Her husband, Drew (Ron Livingston), is a work-hard, play (video game) hard dad, who appears to not be so involved with all it takes to raise a family.
Marlo's super rich brother, Craig (Mark Duplass), offers to pay for them to have a night nanny, so his sister can get rest and focus on the other kids. She scoffs at the idea.
Then she has the baby.
Next comes an incredible montage that culminates with a family dinner where Marlo deals with an innocent, yet soul crushing question from her daughter.
Enter, Tully, the night nanny.
Mackenzie Davis in "Tully."
That scene. It made me audibly "awe" and then my heart turned to goo for a second, I smiled, and knew we were about to get a treat. (I love Mackenzie Davis, by the way, if you didn't pick up on that. She has this one expression...)
"Tully" is written by Diablo Cody, who penned "Juno" and "Young Adult." It was in the latter where we first saw what Theron could do with Cody's dialogue. It is in the above scene, when we meet the title character, we're treated to two outstanding performances built off Cody's dialogue. There are a few standout monologues in the movie, ones from Theron and Davis, and another from Livingston.
I'm not going to spoil the movie. I'll just say the story went places I did not expect. All of the performances are outstanding.
It's been widely reported that Charlize Theron gained 50 pounds to play the role. The last time she went through a physical transformation, she won an Oscar for "Monster." This performance is up there with it, if not better.
Charlize Theron in "Tully."
I walked out of the theater questioning if Theron is somehow a criminally underrated actress. Just a year ago, she was kicking ass on the big screen in "Atomic Blonde" and then she returns with this incredible effort on the opposite end of the spectrum. I fully expect her name to be in the Oscar conversation later this year.
The film is directed by Jason Reitman, who previously helmed "Juno" and "Young Adult," as well as "Up in the Air," "Thank You for Smoking" and the underrated "Men, Women & Children." Since "Thank You," I've been a big fan of Reitman. "Tully" is up there with his best work. The montages, the closeups. The fact he often worked in cramp spaces of a house to tell the story. The performances he got out of the small cast is top notch.
There have been some dissenters claim "Tully" is too focused on the mother and too much of a women's story. Guess what, it's a movie about a mother struggling with postpartum depression while raising a family. It goes to dark places and deals with all the non-glamorous things that come with raising a baby.
At a time when 500 super heroes are dominating the box office in a popcorn spectacle of special effects, it's damn good to have a movie that's grounded in reality and features outstanding work by the cast and crew. It's also nice to see studios still take risks to produce movies for adults and release them on the big screen.
It's a small movie that will likely be available on-demand or iTunes in the coming months. I think this is the best movie I've seen to date this year, so I highly recommend it.
And when you see Mackenzie Davis appear on screen for the first time, it's OK if you let out an audible "awe."