Douglas has been a professional food writer since 1986. He is also an award-winning actor and director in Community Theatre and has been for many years. His blog may be found at: www.urbaneguerilla.wordpress.com
I confess I never saw Monster, I assumed that casting arguably the most beautiful actress in Hollywood as a serial killer who was ugly both within and without was a gimmick pure and simple.
I was wrong. Having now seen Tully, starring the lovely Charlize Theron, I know she was cast because she can act.
In Tully she plays Marlo, a mother of two, one with some unspecified difficulty, always described as 'quirky', which makes him anxious, unduly sensitive to sounds and situations, and she's very heavily pregnant with the third.
She has a husband Drew (Ron Livingston) who is supportive and loving, but busy at work with frequent trips. Once the baby is born, which we see without rose-tinted glasses, she seems overwhelmed.
Her wealthy brother gives her the gift of a month's worth of Night Nanny, a service designed to relieve the pressure of getting up at night other than to feed the baby.
At first, she's reluctant, but as things get worse, she gives in and Tully (Mackenzie Davis) arrives, a unique, helpful kindred soul. They bond and the film explores what it is to be female, a mother and a deepening friendship.
Tully is a difficult film to categorise. It's tagged as a 'dark comedy', but it's certainly not a comedy, not even darkish. There are laughs, but there is a looming sense of tragedy and foreboding, which comes to a head in a stunning scene with an astounding conclusion.
The cinematography is supremely smooth and professional, the acting superb. Theron gained fifty pounds for the role over three and a half months, and took a further year and a half to lose it after filming wrapped.
Tully is a wonderfully 'quirky' movie, professional and well-written, from which you will learn more than you ever wanted to know about motherhood (if you're a man) and identify with Marlo's situation, if you're a woman.
