Review of Tully (2018) by Alan W — 16 May 2018

Just like Juno and Young Adult before, this third outing from director Jason Reitman and writer Diablo Cody (or the second with Charlize Theron), is another smart and thoughtful film that ever so slightly bucks and plays with genre expectations.

Theron's performance literally holds the whole film together and you totally feel for her exhausted and overwhelmed mother of three, struggling to keep it all together, until the arrival of Tully, the night nanny, who allows her space to catch her breath, not to mention a good night's sleep.

Or does she? There is an underlying sense of foreboding throughout the film that hints at something darker and it is, as I said before, a film where its writer has given some thought to its story structure to make sure it'll all make sense in the end.

If you are minded to scrutinise the film from the get-go (like me), it isn't hard for any avid cinemagoer to figure out the direction the narrative is heading and you will probably be right. However, if you don't try to think too hard and just go along with it, there is at least one really strange and awkward scene that might throw you off leading to a minor surprise in the end.

Either way it's fine and as likeable as I find this film to be, I cannot help but feel that Tully is, ultimately, a psycho-thriller with all the horrible stuff filtered out - which turns out to be both a relief and a minor disappointment.

So thank god for Theron (and Mackenzie Davis as Tully) who manage to sell the film with style and panache and I can't wait to see what else the triumphant trio will come up next.