Director Jason Reitman
Starring Charlize Theron, Mackenzie Davis, Ron Livingston
Rated M
Score 4.5/6
A mother of three hires a night nanny to help with her newborn.
Tully reunited director Jason Reitman, writer Diablo Cody and star Charlize Theron, all of whom previously collaborated on Young Adult back in 2011.
Tully is a Mum movie. To be more specific it’s the kind of Mum movie where you should say thank you to your Mum when the credits roll. Now for those of you who might know what I mean by ‘Mum Movie’ a Mum Movie is the type of movie that you recommend to or possibly watch with your Mum. Oh, and considering that I’m sitting here writing this review and I have not called my Mum I would just like to take this opportunity to say, Mum Thank you.
Tully is probably the first movie in a long while that I have watched that was directed by Jason Reitman and to be honest for the first ten to fifteen minutes I found myself wondering if I was going to like this movie, by about the half hour I’m fairly certain that the movie had managed to win me over by then. Apparently, there is a degree of controversy surrounding Tully its depiction of postnatal (or postpartum) depression and other mental illness. I really would be interested in hearing what people thought of how the filmmakers approached this. There is a moment in the movie where Marlo’s son Jonah portrayed by Asher Miles Fallica was described as ‘quirky’ by a school official I can see how the official was being politically correct. However, the word choice of ‘quirky’ struck me as being the wrong word.
Charlize Theron gave a really interesting performance and it was great to see that the movie’s ending casts her character Marlo in a completely different light. I also loved the karaoke moment that Marlo sung with her daughter Sarah played by Lia Frankland. I’m not overly familiar with Mackenzie Davis’ work, though I liked her performance and thought she worked well with Theron.
There is a moment at the end of the movie that was telegraphed and spoilt by the Reitman used his soundtrack, the moment in question did not need any music.