In recent years, there have been several films depicting parenting, all willing to admit that "being a mother" is a very happy thing on the surface, and there are many painful and crazy collateral conditions behind it, but these films tend to adopt the form of crazy comedy, probably not wanting the audience to watch depression and melancholy or decide never to have children in this life. But "Tully" does the opposite, does not romanticize parenting, does not humor all kinds of pain, it takes the audience into a lonely inner world.
Marlowe (Charlize Theron) is about to have an unexpected third child, she has been exhausted by the special condition of the second eldest in the family (undiagnosed, but most likely in autism), and the atmosphere in the home is not joy in the face of the arrival of the newborn, but the rhythm of disaster.
Marlowe's brother once strongly suggested that her sister find a "night nanny" so that she could at least sleep at night, Marlowe was originally quite repulsive, but after being physically and mentally exhausted and facing the brink of collapse, she hired Tully (Mackenzi Davis) to help bring the newborn, and life suddenly turned colorful, but things were not as simple as imagined...
Tully is director Jason Reitman's third collaboration with screenwriter Diablo Coty (the first two were Juno and Teenage), and the script was written after Coty gave birth to her third child.
In this new work, in addition to Coty's usual witticisms, the writers and directors also go to great lengths to present the painful details of motherhood, a mother who has been forever rejected since pregnancy or commented that she is not good enough, and even a low-calorie coffee has to be criticized by passers-by.
After the birth of the child, the day and night of the soldiers and horses is even more tired and boring, this use of montage techniques emphasizes the busyness and repetition, the content is packed, even the newborn sucking milk caused by the nipple injury picture has been brought to, any experienced mother will see it will be a pain in the heart.
Before parenting, all kinds of life experiences such as studying, going abroad, working, etc., feel like they are accumulating on you, but after having a child, the feeling is not what you have accumulated, but cutting off the present you from the past you, or someone dragging you in another direction. The mermaid went ashore, perhaps with the possibility of getting the prince and the family, but also losing the voice, and the freedom to wander the sea.
Tully focuses on what Marlowe gave up and lost, rather than what he gained. When Tully first arrives, sometimes the camera starts from Marlowe's point of view, staring at Tully's waist, suggesting that Marlowe is remembering her past body.
Looking at Tully's energy, Marlowe wishes she could be that way; when Marlowe and Tully talk about the young girl's life, the audience can feel Marlowe's envy and regret.
A woman's life course, in the eyes of outsiders, can be said to be from full of sexual attraction and fertility, to the inability to have children, and then to the people around them, including husbands, have become invisible people, and the psychological adjustment of this process is not easy.
Charlize Theron interprets the role of Marlowe, who has experienced physical and mental disintegration, and plays it very honestly, unreservedly, and frankly to the point of being painful, even gaining 20 kilograms for the play, in order to be close to the truth.
Tully's radiant eyes contrasted sharply with Marlowe's. There are several scenes in "Tully" that emphasize Marlowe's hollow eyes, as if looking thousands of miles away or the soul has long been out of the blue, almost like the end of maternal love - if the body has been hollowed out, is it still emitted from maternal love?
The film's bolder arrangement is about Tully's true identity. In the early part of the film, Tully's character development and behavior patterns, some very strange places, I look at it and think, do the writers and directors really think that the mother's duty should be so magical, to be able to take the children all night and make the family organized and personally bake cupcakes for classmates and cook fresh meals at each meal? Can other mothers who can't afford magical nannies only be called rotten mothers? But please be patient, when the truth comes out later, all the previous outrageous arrangements will make sense.
This drastic turn of events reinforces one thing: the biggest of all the feelings of parenting is often loneliness. On the parenting road, only the mother herself is alone, and the others either don't exist or hate you. Even if you see the cute side of the baby, no one can share it, because you only see yourself, and all your heart can only talk to yourself.
Supposedly, the husband should be able to share with Marlowe, but he has to go to work, travel a lot, and have his own pressure to play a listening role. Although the couple is still in love, but there is almost no communication and any intersection, each other is no longer able to care about how difficult the other's life is now, perhaps they are also confused, how to get to this point, but unable to solve.
Marlowe's favorite TV show, Midnight Cowboy, happens to be a sharp contrast to her reality. The sex in the show, exaggerated and funny, seems to be far from the truth, and seems to be within reach; but in reality, she is facing the chaotic consequences of sex - children, "conjugal life" itself has no longer happened, the wife is tired and half dead, the husband only wants to play games to escape reality, and "husband and wife life" has become a pressure and luxury.
In all respects, Marlowe is completely lonely, there is no intimate and emotional connection with other adults in life, and the connection between the child and her consumes a lot of her remaining physical strength and emotions.
I particularly like a dialogue in "Tully" when Marlowe is arguing with the principal of the child's school and is about to burst out of the door in anger when the other person shouts, "I don't want you to leave in this mood," at which point Marlowe bluntly says, "I leave with this emotion every day, but you never find out!"
Yes, the mother's life is often in the acting, from the moment you open your eyes to start acting, you can hide the frustration and anger in your heart, but this does not mean that "it is okay", in fact, many mothers have "something", but the reality of the state makes her have no "thing" cost, at most can only barely support, to maintain and live in peace with the people and things around her, but the heart is always angry, lonely, sour.
Marlowe needs to talk and talk to the young self of the past, so that she can find a little bit of herself, Tully is in this position, and only Tully can have time to listen to her and say things that will not anger her.
The screenwriter does not set up the contrast between Tully and Marlowe to cut out two mutually exclusive paths, Tully's life is not naïve and ignorant, Marlowe's choice is not great and noble; Tully's life is not completely complete and trouble-free, and Marlowe's life has certain things that make her happy and satisfied. But since this road has gone down, it is more important to find a way to finish it alive, and there is no need to envy others, because it is not helpful.
The main thrust of "Tully" is not to force women, it does not point to you, you can balance family and work, and you can have everything; it tells you that it is normal to be alone, it is normal to be unhappy, it is not ashamed to blame yourself, there is nothing wrong with asking your teammates for help, and there is nothing strange about uncomfortable collapse.
If you really can't find anyone to help, then as long as you are still alive, you are already successful, even if you bring out a frozen pizza dinner or a mess at home, it does not mean that you "fail", and sticking out the superficial perfection will not improve your life.