Sundance Review: Charlize Theron Has a Mental Mom Breakdown in Jason Reitman's TULLY
Other than a little teaser trailer that was released recently, I didn't know much about director Jason Reitman’s latest film Tully. The movie has a fantastically talented cast that includes Charlize Theron, Ron Livingston, Mark Duplass, and Mackenzie Davis. They were all great in their roles, but Theron once again shined and gave yet another amazing performance. She’s such a damn good actress!
As you know, Theron has been doing a lot of badass action films recently like Mad Max: Fury Road, Furious 7, and Atomic Blonde. But Tully is nothing like those films. It's the complete opposite. In this movie, she plays a middle-aged mom barely hanging on and trying to hold it together!
Theron plays Marlo, a mother of three kids who is gifted a night nanny by her brother after having a baby girl. She doesn't want to take advantage of it, but there comes a breaking point for her and she ends up making the call. Marlo and the night nanny, Tully, end up forming a very strong relationship and Tully begins to help get Marlo’s life back in order. There is an interesting twist to the story that I won’t get into, but it definitely makes for a fascinating movie. It's almost like a modern-day Mary Poppin's story.
This movie definitely isn't for everyone, but it's a well-made film. I tend to enjoy Jason Reitman's films and I was able to connect with this one because I have three kids of my own and I know what it has been like for my wife and I. This is a movie that people with kids can definitely relate to. If you don’t have kids, this movie might want to make you hold off on having kids a little longer.
The film had a good mix of sad and depressing drama and light, fun humor that will make you laugh... if you can relate to what the characters are going through.
The script for the film was written by Diablo Cody (Juno, Young Adult) and if you dig her style, whether you have kids or not, then you’ll probably enjoy this film.
