What’s harder than beating up a staircase of thugs or leading a dystopian rebellion? Marlo, Charlize Theron’s exhausted mother of three, barely surviving her newborn’s broken nights and son Jonah’s meltdowns, has it tougher than Furiosa and her 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Atomic Blonde badass combined. In Jason Reitman’s tough, tender dramedy about the dark side of child🐲-raising, a wan, baby-bloated Theron has a Monster-worthy emotional and physical transformation. 

Diablo Cody’s wry, sharp-eyed script shows a determined Marlo slowly drowning under the weight of smug in-laws, carping teachers, the probably autistic Jonah (Asher Miles Fallica) and the sheer night-and-day slog of mothering. Reitman’s up-close camera and sped-up montages are cunningly immersive, making Marlo’s broken breastfeeding nights feel like 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Zero Dark Thirty sleep-deprivation torture. So when perky, quirky night-nurse Tul𝕴ly (a glowing Mackenzie Davis) is hired to tr෴ansform Marlo’s life with cupcakes, house-cleaning, and small-hours girly bonding, it’s a godsend. Or is it? 

Reitman has continually pushed dramatic boundaries in his three films with Cody, from hot-button adoption ಞcomedy Juno to dark stalker-fest Young Adult. So this skilful character study has ♎shocks skulking in its satire on suburban mommy skirmishes. As Tully becomes Marlo’s chatty, life-changing BFF, the film’s funny, relatable story drops a breadcrumb trail of clues about the unexpected places that mourning your single life can lead to. Its touch is so light that even a startling bedroom role-play scene with Marlo’s amiable, ineffectual husband (Ron Livingston) only suggests more than three’s not always a crowd... 

Theron is asto𓆏nishingly good, giving a subtle, vanity-free performance full of deadpan comedy and emotional truth: “Your twenties are great. Then your thirties come around the corner like a garbage truck at 5am.” But Davis’ funky, manic-pixie dream-nanny (Cody does love a wild-child), sweetly caring where Theron is cynical, gives their partnership real chemistry. 

That said, the film’s gentleness, resolutely domestic setting and lack of zingers will wrong-foot anyone who hasn’t seen a Reitman movie since Up in the Air. It’s got the same thoughtful, personal vibe as even his misfires, like social-media mꦯelodrama Men, Women and Children. Hence Tully lays out the complexities of motherhood without TV-movie black-and-white morality. 

When Marlo and Tully get trashed in a bar, there’s a bathroom break that goes where other films fear to tread. Brace yourself, too, for the jaw-dropper of a twist late on. Audacious but not credibility-defying, it should carry
a Psycho-style warning not to spoiler it. Let’s just say that mother’s little helper keeps it all in the family.