"Tully" (2018)

First off, Happy Mother's Day to all you motherfuckers out there. Enjoy your birthday.
Secondly, it's always weird...appreciation of Mother's Day. According to my Ma, Mother's Day is everyday, and if we're not reminded about how they suffered so we had things better, they'll remind you. Relationships are complicated with Mothers. The dynamic changes so drastically. And there isn't one mental illness label that couldn't be attributed to it.

"Tully" starts out as a very cool life-sucks-when-you're-40 and have kids story and downshifts into a different movie. I'm not saying the ending isn't bad, it's just that it suffers from front story bloat. To show a suffering three-peat Mother isn't that engaging. Though, director Jason Reitman makes it as interesting as he can. There are issues mothers have with their kids that neither them or the public can pinpoint. So they get ignored. Which was my generation anyway.
Marlo, played by Charlize Theron (in her fattest ever) is a 40 year old woman whose youth has long past. Drained by two kids and one on the way, she isn't getting much help from video game tuned out husband Drew (played by Ron Livingston). In the constant fringe of giving birth, Drew lives under the shadow of Marlo's brother, Craig's, success. After the birth of the child, it becomes clear Marlo desperately needs help, which Craig decides to pay for. In comes Tully. A flower-child free-spirit night nanny played by Mackenzie Davis. She tells it like it is. But does it with a spoonful of sugar. Just kidding. She isn't Mary Poppins. She's mysterious and insightful (as only a 20 year old can be). Marlo slowly eases up on her pressured life and we start to see her glow a little. The glamorous Charlize peeks through. Unfortunately, as with all nanny situations, Tully must eventually go her own way.

I guess Jason Reitman is about...melancholy. The tone of the film is very...non-committal. He is saddled with an incredibly hard line to walk since he is limited in certain ways a mother would act three kids in. There is also showing how miserable domesticated families are...in real life, without it boring people. In the end...the movie feels claustrophobic and the resolution doesn't necessarily answer a lot of the questions. I get the feeling that writer Diablo Cody's original script ended more tragic. As it is...it's similar to "Young Adult" (their previous collaboration) in that it's punishing in its banality of "normal" life or attempting to reach it.
I think it's a question many people in our industry ask. What it means to be normal past the days when you were carefree. Hopes and dreams and potential only exists when YOU don't see limitation. In the world of "Tully" it really reminds you the stalled life that much of us face as we grow up.