Film recommendation: “Tully”, a manifesto of modern motherhood

In collaboration with Emily J

The film “Tully”, recently in theatres and now available on the new streaming platform Chili, may definitely be considered a manifesto of modern motherhood.

Motherhood is often portrayed in movies to a degree that real mothers have
themselves looking at their own homes and lives and saying, ‘yeah, that’s notrealistic’. “Tully”, however, is changing this.

In “Tully”, you see the messy house, zero sleep, exhaustion, and how motherhood has affected main character Marlo, a frazzled mother of three,
played by actress Charlize Theron.Charlize Theron explained in an interview with People magazine that self-identity and motherhood is something that Marlo struggles with, and that she is not alone in this struggle, as many women do. Theron shared, “Marlo is a woman who tries her best to keep up with the demands of being an attentive mother, a loving wife,and maintaining at least some self-identity through it all. But at the end of the day, she’s human, and she drops the ball a little. Or a lot.”

Marlo’s husband, played by Ron Livingston, is unaware of what his wife is reallygoing through. Her brother, played by Mark Duplass, ends up hiring a nightnanny for Marlo named Tully, played by Mackenzie Davis. The description of thefilm explains, “Hesitant to the extravagance at first, Marlo comes to form a uniquebond with the thoughtful, surprising, and sometimes challenging young nanny named Tully.”

The film offers a real look at motherhood and the bond and support that truefemale friendships provide. Though it may seem to be something “small”, it is infact enormous when you feel that in your life: to be seen, be heard, and be understood.

Theron doesn’t want dads to be singled out or daddy-shamed, though. She explained in an interview with Refinery29, “This movie has made me more aware of how much we just need to listen. Ron’s character is tricky because he’s very real, and he’s not a villain. He’s what I think a lot of dads are projecting out there, which is: They come home, they travel, they try to be involved as much as they can, they’re not fully aware.” She goes on to say says that, “If anything, most dads have kind of come to me after watching this movie and said: ‘I realized that I just had no idea.’ And I think a lot of that can be resolved by really just listening, and being truthful about what the experience is. I don’t want to do the same thing to dads that we already do to moms.”

Hollywood currently has a light on the life of moms, with Big Little Lies, Bad Moms and now Tully. Theron explains that though she doesn’t know why that is, “I have a feeling that it has to do with the fact that it’s so real that you just can’t deny it, you can’t walk away from it, and finally, there’s been some material that has tapped into it, and have had the opposite [effect] of what people assumed would happen if you actually told the real story of how messy it can be to be a parent. The assumption has been that people don’t want to see that, and it turned out to not be true. I think people are feeling not alone all of a sudden, because they’re watching stories that are finally telling them that, ‘Guess what? It is like this for everybody.'”

“Tully” is one that will make parents feel like they are not alone, shining on a light on self-discovery and the beauty and power of support.