Tully (dir. Jason Reitman)

The term “night nanny” may trip off the tongue effortlessly, but many won’t agree it constitutes a living. Yet surprisingly, its not anywhere near as problematic when it becomes the basis of Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody’s newest collaboration “Tully”, which charts the development of a forty-year old mother of two, who’s about to pop number three, and the impromptu presence of a Mackenzie Davis’ eponymous nursemaid.

Charlize Theron is our aforementioned child-bearer, playing the once party-loving and seemingly bi-curious free spirt Marlo, now turned into a lactating around-the-clock feeding machine at her wits end. At the opposite side of her marriage comes Ron Livingston’s Drew, who’s hard-working methods provide for the family yet leave the real day-to-day parenting to Marlo. So when Marlo’s highfaluting rich brother Craig (Mark Duplass) offers to finance a night nanny to allow Marlo to get some sleep, thus enters Tully.

In a change of pace for the filmmaking duo of Reitman and Cody, Tully is a character piece akin to their previous works: Juno and Young Adult, yet with less obnoxious characters. In the lead, Theron hasn’t looked this disheveled since her transformative turn in her Oscar-winning Monster, and the additional fifty-pounds she put on for this role shows the lengths she will go to reach artistic authenticity. In addition to sympathizing with her plight, whether its dealing with her youngest son Noah (Asher Miles Fallica) who’s erratic behavior is causing problems at the school, or her daughter Sarah (Lia Frankland) lack of self-confidence, we also root for her to succeed - and Theron’s masterful ability at portraying a mother with too much on her plate is her best in years.

Essentially a parable of the trials and tribulations of modern parenting, Tully examines the roles we play in our relationships and the notion of lost youth. Though Tully turns up in order to watch the children and nurture them whilst the parents detoxify, she soon becomes a muse for Marlo to counterbalance the vicissitudes of her life. Her sex life has diminished, and wonders if it will ever return “How can i become sexy after a small baby has been sucking on my nipples all day?”, so says Marlo, though Tully orchestrates a rekindling of sorts which is somehow oddly moving.

Though much slower in it’s storytelling than perhaps warranted, with the odd montage sequence of Marlo’s unorthodox parenting style are perhaps the only moments of visual flair, the essence of Tully bears in it’s relationship with Marlo and her newly appointed wet-nurse. They bounce of each other with equal vigor, with the added help of Diablo Cody’s well written and astute script. Many would expect from the subject matter, that Reitman and co would portray the lifelong job of motherhood as something to be avoided, but in the end Tully is about the love of motherhood more than a subversive critique of it.

Like parenting, with “Tully”: you get out what you put in. Admittedly a patience testing experience (especially if you’re debating parenting in the not to distant future), and some of the set-pieces are too broad to be either dramatic engaging or humorous. But if you stick with it, there’s so much to admire here: the performances all round are well cast and suitably solid, and the deftness with which Cody and Reitman intertwine their filmmaking prowess is inspiring and always watchable.

Rating 4/5.