Marlo (Charlize Theron) is very pregnant. Her husband Drew (Ron Livingston) spends his spare time playing video games. Her son's tantrums are causing problems at school and they demand she hire an aide for him. After the birth, she is overwhelmed by the new baby. Her wealthy brother Craig (Mark Duplass) casually suggests a night nanny ignoring the costs. The arrival of Tully (Mackenzie Davis) is a salvation and they slowly become more than friends.

Charlize is stripped of her Hollywood super gorgeous idolatry. She's great. I wasn't sure with the addition of Tully. It takes one particularly strange turn before it goes full crazy and I bought into it. The reveal is a little muddled and I would subtract Drew's comment about having a night nanny at the hospital. That little comment causes some issues. I'd revise it in a specific way. No matter what, that's a minor bump in an otherwise terrific movie.

Two years after Clint Eastwood's Sully, "Tully" is a new 2018 movie from America and the most recent collaboration between Oscar-nominated director Jason Reitman and Oscar-winning writer Diablo Cody, both around the age of 40 now. And it is also not the first time that Oscar-winning South African actress Charlize Theron plays the main character in a Reitman/Cody film and yes it is true, even if the film's title includes another character who is admittedly a co-lead here. I cannot deny that I am quite a fan of Reitman's works with "Up in the Air" being one of the finest and most contemporarily relevant movies of the decade in my opinion, maybe the best film on unemployment that has even been made. But Reitman wrote that one himself and when he lends the pen to Cody, his efforts may not be as top-notch.

Still, what we have here is a solid movie in my opinion that is certainly worth seeing. Theron plays the part better than probably pretty much everybody else would have and her dedication, also in terms of weight gain, is admirable. She makes the role her own really quickly. Mackenzie Davis is a fresh face and she is convincing too, even if she definitely does not have the quality and material to shine as much as Theron. The two have pretty good chemistry and as a consequence this relatively short 95-minute movie flies by. The only essential problem I had with it that I can think of right now is probably the inclusion of two key scenes. The first would be how Theron's character gifts Tully to her husband from a sexual perspective. It's never graphic and you cannot be 100% sure if there was intercourse or just stripping leading to ejaculation perhaps, but it felt a bit strange for a married couple and the explanation to spice things up and wake the man's instinct did not feel entirely convincing to me. Yes he loves his wife, but this moment also could have turned him into someone who experiences interest in other women again, not just Tully. And the second scene, that was even working less for me was the mermaid scene at the end. I assume the protagonist was just hallucinating somehow here, but then she still got out of the car, so she cannot have lost her senses or consciousness. This is really where the film tries to be too much in terms of significance and the impact it is trying to make. I don't think we would have seen that with Reitman penning the story.

But well, these minor flaws should not take anything away from the pretty good character study the film is most of the time. It's a good watch with your parents, your significant other or your family in general, maybe your kids not so much. Also real greatness is missing aside from an occasional pretty good Theron moment. Livingston was good too and so were the two who played the brother and his wife. But it's not a movie that will make a huge impact come awards season, also because it simply misses moments of true greatness or something like the contemporarily significant story parts I mentioned earlier that somehow feel like they have an impact on society overall. The release is also not perfect and will destroy Theron's chances who could have been there for some nominations at least had the film been released half a year later. But this should not keep you from watching it. I think it is very much worth seeing, especially for the dialogs between the characters and basically everybody's acting from start to finish. If your wife is pregnant, especially with her second child or so, then you are almost obliged to check this one out with her. Don't miss out here. I give it a thumbs-up of course. A really rock-solid mix of comedy and drama.

Phenomenal performance by Charlize Theron once again. And a story to hold it all together. You may know where this is heading (morality or just plain story wise),I didn't, but I don't think this will impact how much you will like this. So well played and if you like a drama that depicts a certain issue very well, you could do worse but not much better in the overall package department.

Well directed and shot, well scripted, this gives us an insight into the mind of a person that might not be ready yet. And I would argue that most know that feeling. Some can work better with it others less so. It's really a rollercoast ride and one that while I wouldn't call entertaining generally speaking, it does hold a lot of light moments. Which is quite the achievement and also necessary if you think about all the moments that might feel like they drag on ... the pacing is key and it works, if you let it