Review: Tully

"I'm here to help you," the title character tells Marlo in director Jason Reitman and writer Cody Diablo's third and best collaboration, Tully. As with their breakthrough pairing, Juno, the film deals with the problems of pregnancy but this time through the eyes of a beleaguered woman rather than a headstrong teen.

Marlo (Charlize Theron) certainly needs all the help that she can get. She's 40, saddled with a nice but negligent husband and two kids, one of whom has behavioral problems, and is heavily pregnant with her third child. She isn't so much drowning as already submerged and it's abundantly clear from Theron's body language that frustration, exhaustion and terror have worn her to the bone. "I feel like an abandoned trash barge," she exclaims at one point; at another, "My body looks like a relief map for a war-torn country." Indeed, the film disabuses viewers of the notion that motherhood is all roses, unicorns, and living sainthood. Motherhood, Tully declares in no uncertain terms, is a messy, never-ending, life-leeching minefield that will leave you a shadow of your former self, and getting that baby out of your body and into the world is just the start of one's troubles.

Indeed, giving birth to her third child just means that Marlo is plunged into a cycle of sleepless nights, which leave her barely functioning during the day. After a near breakdown, she decides to take her more affluent brother (Mark Duplass) up on his offer to provide her with a night nanny. Enter Tully (Mackenzie Davis), who is perfection from the start, easing into her duties with nary a hiccup, and instantly rendering Marlo's life a million times better. "It's like I can see colour again," Marlo marvels to her husband.

She can also see her younger self in the twenty-six-year-old carefree Tully, and this is where the film takes on another level of interest. One can easily view Tully as the person that Marlo used to be - what's happened to that person? Has that person completely disappeared, or do they still exist somewhere in the recesses of the person Marlo currently is? Does Marlo need to let go of that person in order to be a better mother to her kids? Or does she need to nurture and maintain this part of herself in order to still be an individual? Tully argues that in order to take care of others, one needs to take care of one's self first which, in its way, flies against the sacrificial nature inherent in society's view of mothers. Diablo introduces a third act twist that both addresses and somewhat undermines these questions, and which may elicit an eye roll from viewers less inclined to such a fantastical touch.

That potential misgiving aside, the majority of Tully is an exceedingly solid and frequently unpredictable creation with dynamite performances from Theron and Davis, the former continuing to remind what a fearless performer she is and the latter proving herself one of the most underrated actresses of her generation.

Tully

Directed by: Jason Reitman

Written by: Diablo Cody

Starring: Charlize Theron, Mackenzie Davis, Mark Duplass, Ron Livingston