Being a mother is tough. A father simply doesn’t understand what it’s like to birth, raise, and bend your life backwards for a child. Mothers give all of themselves to a child. Marlo (Charlize Theron) knows this all too well, being the mother of two with a third child on the way. When you are a mother, the biggest struggle is retaining your former self through pregnancy and the early years.
When Jason Reitman’s beautifully rendered Tully opens up, we get a dose of the daily grind for Marlo. She wakes up and brushes (literally) the skin of her young boy, Jonah (Asher Miles Fallica), to help with his behavioral troubles. She tends to her young daughter, Sarah(Lia Frankland), before taking the two to school. Once there, she can’t leave without talking to the principal about Jonah’s “quirkiness.” Did I mention she was pregnant and her husband works too much?
Marlo needs assistance, and her brother (Mark Duplass) gets her a “night nanny,” someone to help the woman sleep at night and help Marlo transition back to a normal life. When it comes to normal and Marlo, the lines are tricky and blurred. She has suffered trauma in the past and doesn’t take easily to Tully (Mackenzie Davis) when she arrives to help.
The relationship between these two women dominates the rest of the movie, with a few unexpected twists and surprises that give the story enough tilt to come off as original and thought-provoking. Continue reading “‘Tully’ is proof that Charlize Theron is one of the best in the business”
