Is the idea of a night nanny one of comfort or repulsion? I can go either way here. On the one hand, there is the legitimate, honest assessment, “Babies are hard!” and on the other, there’s the sarcastic, Barbie-doll response of “Babies are hard!” Truth is, babies are hard; nobody should tell you otherwise, and that’s why paid family leave and worker protection are necessary evolutions in civilized society. And yet, how do you legitimize subcontracting the hardest part of motherhood/fatherhood? First, how do you suppose a movie about the night nanny indulgence goes over with families who could never afford such? And secondly, what would it look like if we subcontracted out the most difficult part of all the chores in our lives? “Did you do the dishes, hon?” “Oh yes, I did … except for the lasagna pan. That was too difficult, so I paid the kid next door to scrub it. Hope he did a good job.”
Marlo (Charlize Theron) wasn’t enjoying life when she only had two kids. Now at nine months pregnant, nothing is easy, exacerbated by a semi-present husband (Ron Livingston) and her spectrum-dwelling son, Jonah (Asher Miles Fallica). Jonah will throw a bawling fit if you park in the wrong lot, which is tantamount to a chorus of angels for all in earshot.
BTW, former Road Warrior Charlize Theron gained fifty pounds for this role in order to appear more accessible to normal women. Did it work? I’m thinkin’ “yes,” but I’m the wrong person to ask. I will say, however, I have nothing but praise for the dangerous dedication to art shown here.
With a baby due at Marlo’s plus-forty age, there is potential disaster on the horizon. Hold up a second, you’re over forty, not terribly religious, and don’t know the sex of your upcoming baby … did you not have testing done at all? Are you insane?! Sorry, this film showed me so many questionable moments, I wondered if writer Diablo Cody had any kids of her own (she has three). Everybody notices Marlo ain’t enjoying life, so her brother Craig (Mark Duplass) offers the night nanny solution for when the baby arrives and life gets even worse. Sure, it sounds like white privilege –and it kinda is- but, hey, why pass up such an offer, especially if you don’t have to pay for it? And after the moment that Marlo self-destructs in the headmistress office at Saint Jonah-go-away Elementary School, it’s time to take the night nanny challenge. Enter Tully.
If you get this far, you have to get to the end of the film. You have to. On the one hand, Tully (Mackenzie Davis) comes across as a grad student studying Suburban 
Economics. And then there’s the Tully who is both eerily intuitive and intimate to the point of the viewer wondering when the film is going to switch genres. You cannot understand Tully’s true nature without seeing the entire movie.
Tully is a clever film. I believe the battle of director (Jason Reitman) v. writer goes here to the writer; this feels much more like a Diablo Cody film than a Jason Reitman one. It is one of the deep shames of life that Diablo Cody hasn’t yet figured out that “clever” can be obnoxious-free. I feel like after she penned the gem Juno, she took from her award-winning experience writing that leans heavy on self-indulgence instead of nuanced study. There are a few highly objectionable moments in the film including the horror of Marlo pimping out her nanny … you have to get to the end and then -and only then- decide if the clever was worth the WTF?
♪Somebody needs a breather
Before I get all depressed
Somebody might explode from life’s mind screw
Baby, (I) need a rest♫
Rated R, 95 Minutes
Director: Jason Reitman
Writer: Diablo Cody
Genre: The birthing blues
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Mothers, I guess
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: ZPG
♪ Parody Inspired by “Nobody Does It Better”
