By Isabella Bullock ’19

The first time I went to see this movie, I drove all the way to the theater on a Friday night only to find out that the seats were all sold out. The second time I went was on Super Tuesday, so the tickets were cheaper, but after seeing the film, I would have paid full price for it.

The film, “Tully,” is about a mother of a troubled boy and self-critical daughter with a baby on the way. The mother is overwhelmed with her life, when her wealthy brother offers to buy her a night nanny to help her with her children.

This film is a drama directed by Jason Reitman who also directed “Juno” and “Young Adult.” Reitman managed to show the struggle, the job and the responsibility of motherhood. At first when I heard model Charlize Theron was playing the mother, I was surprised because she is a model who has to constantly keep up her appearance, and I could not see her as worn down. However, she got into the role by being constantly fatigued and annoyed due to the stress she had from taking care of her family. The saddest part of the film was when she gave birth to her baby and was not excited or happy when doing so. Mothers are usually characterized happily when they have children in most films, but in this film she seemed almost unamused to the fact of her child’s birth.

To add on to the well told story, the technical filmmaking was also beautiful and well thought out. The film was set with nostalgic yellow tones and scattered with childrens’ toys.

Many of the scenes, if not all, were captured with a handheld camera. The shakiness off the camera paired well with the shakiness of the characters’ lives.

The one problem I had with the film was the acting. The dialogue between the characters was very weak. They spoke either extremely monotone or were dramatically over acting, so most of what they said was predictable and unrealistic.

It took awhile for me to take in what had happened at the end of the film, for there is a twist ending. However, after pausing to think back on the film, the real and raw plot is fitting and definitely worthy of a discussion. I would give the film four stars out of five because it was not one of the greatest films I’ve ever seen, but I enjoyed it and believe other will as well.