I saw Tully a few days after visiting a pelvic physiotherapist. I've been in a lot of pain lately after abdominal surgery, and the gentle touch of this practical young woman brought tears to my eyes. Her waiting room was crammed with prams and tired, lumpy-looking new mothers. 'Up to ninety per cent of women who've given birth vaginally have some kind of prolapse,' she told me, proceeding to put her gloved fingers inside me and feel for the places where my own baby had arrived fifteen years ago.
Nobody talks about this kind of damage, not really. And nobody talks about the grief and exhaustion of relentless early motherhood, except to joke about it, and say it's all worthwhile and you don't really remember the pain.
Bullshit.
Tully is a film written by Diablo Cody (Juno, Young Adult), herself a mother of three, and while it's supposedly a comedy, it's the most honest representation I've seen on screen of the despair that comes with maternal drudgery and extreme sleep deprivation. Directed by Jason Reitman (Juno, Up in the Air), the film stars Charlize Theron as Marlo, a mother of two, heavily pregnant with her third baby. She's tired, sad and angry. She swears a lot and doesn't even try to be nice to the school principal when discussing her special needs son. Marlo's husband (Ron Livingston) is a good man, but he's struggling to pay the bills and afraid his wife is going to fall apart emotionally the way she did the last time she gave birth.
So when Marlo's rich brother offers the baby-gift of a night nanny to help with the graveyard shift, it seems a guardian angel has arrived on the doorstep. The nanny, Tully (Mackenzie Davis) is a strange, dreamlike creature, a young woman with flat, bared midriff and a stock of fairychild wisdom. How can she possibly help? And yet her touch is practical, confident and quiet. She tells Marlo she's there to take care of both baby and mother, the whole unit, the whole person. Marlo replies with a laugh: 'It's been a long time since anyone took care of my hole.' And off she goes to bed for the first proper sleep in a long time.
Charlize Theron has always been a fearless actress, careless of her beauty and quite prepared to gain weight for roles. (Think of her unrecognisable turn as thuggish serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster, 2003). In Tully, Theron shows the convincing physicality of a nursing mother who hasn't had time or energy to look after herself. With the cruel honesty of the young, her own daughter asks her what's wrong with her stomach. But the night nanny's help makes a huge difference. Marlo starts to return to life, and to summon back the kind of carefree, courageous young woman she was before motherhood.
There are few things in life as inescapable as parenthood. Tully is a kind of fantasy about being properly supported to bear, endure and - and even enjoy - this reality. There are some plot developments which may have you scratching your head or feeling let down at the film's close. But representation matters, and seeing this common (yet not commonly shown) part of human life on screen is a joy, and a relief in itself.
Rochelle Siemienowicz
A new comedy from Academy Award®-nominated director
Jason Reitman (“Up in the Air”) and
Academy Award®-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody (“J
uno”). Marlo (Academy Award® winner
Charlize Theron), a mother of three including a new
born, is gifted a night nanny by her brother
(Mark Duplass). Hesitant to the extravagance at fir
st, Marlo comes to form a unique bond with
the thoughtful, surprising, and sometimes challengi
ng young nanny named Tully (Mackenzie
Davis)
A new comedy from Academy Award®-nominated director
Jason Reitman (“Up in the Air”) and
Academy Award®-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody (“J
uno”). Marlo (Academy Award® winner
Charlize Theron), a mother of three including a new
born, is gifted a night nanny by her brother
(Mark Duplass). Hesitant to the extravagance at fir
st, Marlo comes to form a unique bond with
the thoughtful, surprising, and sometimes challengi
ng young nanny named Tully (Mackenzie
Davis)
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