Movie Review: Charlize Theron Proves Parenthood Is a Mutha in "Tully"

Charlize Theron takes the Fury Road offramp and heads to an even more apocalyptic setting in Tully: a nightmarish future dystopia for prospective parents.

Those who’ve already got kids will probably appreciate Tully’s frankness, which doesn’t sugarcoat the child-rearing process. It doesn’t even salt it, for taste. The movie gives it to us straight. Consider this What You Should Have Expected If You Were Misled by What to Expect When You’re Expecting.

Theron reteams with Young Adult director Jason Reitman and screenwriter Diablo Cody for Tully. (That same duo also gave us Juno, which means they’ve now covered unplanned pregnancy, abortion and postpartum depression over a trilogy that focuses on women’s health and snarky comebacks.)

She plays Marlo, a stressed mother of two, pregnant with her third child. Finances are tight, and her husband, Drew (Ron Livingston), isn’t exactly attentive. Marlo’s rich-jerk brother Craig (Mark Duplass), not wanting her to fall into a depressive funk, offers to pay for a 'night nanny' to take care of the new bub at night, so Marlo can get some sleep. She balks at the offer, already hyperaware of how people perceive her as a mother. However, after she gives birth, we bear witness to a jagged, Darren Aronofsky-esque montage of Marlo’s daily routine: getting kids ready for school, tending to baby Mia, pumping milk, not sleeping, repeat. She understandably relents and decides to bring in Tully (Mackenzie Davis) to take the night shift.

This is the point at which eyebrows will probably curl concerningly in the audience, ‘cos Tully is a twenty-something wood-nymph, abounding with maternal wisdom. (It at least helps that Davis has an exceptionally warm way of speaking.) After her suspicions subside, Marlo embraces Tully and finally becomes the mother people expect her to be: cooking elaborate dinners; baking for her son’s class; taking care of her husband in the bedroom. So, you’ve not only got a manic-pixie-dream-sprite swanning in to save our heroine, but a regressive depiction of what a mother and woman in 2018 needs to be. This is some GOOP-level propaganda, I thought.

I was in disbelief, mainly because Tully initially seemed so perceptive. After setting up a relatable and recognisable lead, were the makers seriously going to let Marlo be rescued by a seemingly magical nanny? How does that help the viewers who were turning to Tully for something that spoke to their struggles? Cinematographer Eric Steelberg even turns the hue to 'golden' for these sequences. Someone’s been looking through the #momtographer hashtag on Instagram.

Mercifully, that is not the film Tully reveals itself to be. An unexpected ending (no spoilers) retroactively addresses these issues, and crystalises the tale that’s actually being told. (Prior, I sat there puzzled, wondering what point Cody and Reitman were circling, because they didn’t seem to be landing on any.) It may raise a whole bunch of other troublesome issues, specifically in how it handles Marlo's mental health (which we won't get into here), but as a specific woman's story, I found the resolution satisfying.

Theron, who gained around 20kg to play Marlo, gives yet another astounding and prickly performance, following the challenging Young Adult. In contrast to her icy turn in Atomic Blonde, and her now-iconic Furiosa from Mad Max: Fury Road, it’s hard to argue that she isn’t one of our best, most chameleonic actors. She’s aided by Cody’s script, which gives her the cutting-est lines. Though, anyone who bristled at Cody’s overwritten jibes in previous flicks may not exactly prefer them here.

Getting a picture with a female lead is rare enough. Tully does the rarer thing: structuring the whole film around a woman’s identity and personhood. Marlo worries she’s losing both in the throes of motherhood. If she’d been stuck in a film like I Don’t Know How She Does It, she’d be told "having it all" meant balancing work and family. In Tully, Reitman and Cody take it to a more elemental and personal level, saying, for some mothers, successfully "having it all" just means remaining themselves.

3.5/5

In Australian cinemas 10 May. Rated M for mature themes, coarse language and sex.

Photo: StudioCanal