Screened at 2018 San Francisco Film Festival

Opens in United States on May 4, 2018

*****

Tully

We saw this film at the San Francisco Film Festival where there was a special tribute paid to Charlize Theron for her body of work. Subsequently, this movie was shown.

In the film, we meet Marlo (Charlize Theron) as she is in the late stages of her third pregnancy while dealing with the trials and tribulations of raising two children and allowing her husband to sleep through the night and get on with his job. Her rich brother (Mark Duplass) offers to get her a night nanny to help with the new born. This nanny, Tully, (Mackenzie Davis) symbolically happens to have her maiden name, Tully, that she had when she was young and free.

Screen writer Diablo Cody collaborated with writer-director Jason Reitman who helped to provide the symbolism and synergy to show the struggle that a young woman might have in moving from a young, free as a bird, woman to a nursing, dedicated, but overwhelmed and depressed mother. The movie reminds us of the need to “let go” sometimes in order to “move on” as well as a hint of some issues involved in post partum depression. Theron leads an outstanding supportive cast, which includes a great script and a very competent director (2018).

***

Young Adult-sp– Director Jason Reitman (Up In the Air, Thank You For Smoking, Juno) who was a guest at our preview screening compared his directing style to that of this father Ivan Reitman (Animal House, Ghost Busters, Twins). He explained whereas his father likes to make movies that make you feel good, he prefers films that make you uncomfortable. He succeeded in his goal using the screenplay written by Diablo Cody (Juno) and what should be an award winning performance by Charlize Theron.

She plays Mavis Gary a very attractive (of course), divorced, moderately successful writer without any meaningful relationships in her life who learns that her old high school boyfriend and his wife have just had their first child. This stirs her up and sets her off on a mission to return to her hometown, find her old boyfriend, rekindle their true love which she feels has always been there, and try to get him to go off into the sunset with her. Theron makes this unbelievable character quite believable in the most subtle manner as she picks her way through her home town, picking at her hair and showing a propensity to put away drinks. Her determination begins to get scary as she casually shares her plan with old high school friends that she meets, a visit with her parents and her meeting with her old bf (Patrick Wilson ) and his wife (Elizabeth Reaser). The depth of this character or perhaps the lack of it is highlighted in her encounters with one high school classmate Matt (Patton Oswalt) who is has been damaged physically on the outside  as much as we realize that she is damaged on the inside. There is a great musical background throughout the movie and the closing song is Diana Ross singing “ When We Grow Up” from the classic Marlo Thomas album “Free to Be You and Me” This provides the depressing mood of this film which sadly for this character highlights the line “We don’t have to change at all.”(2011)