Tully

I've no kids. Very few of my friends have them. Only one of the women I'm friends with has had children and she lives 5000 miles away. I've no idea how to hold a baby or change a nappy. And after watching Tully I never want to. COS IT LOOKS LIKE A PAIN IN THE HOLE.

I jest of course. Sort of...

Marlo is a woman ran into the grounds by the demands of motherhood. She's 9 months pregnant with her third child. She hasn't slept in forever. Her son might be on the spectrum and her husband is more interested in playing Gears Of War 4 than going near her. She's at the end of her tether when help arrives in the form of Tully, a night nanny who will look after the babby so she can sleep. Things look up the second she appears.

I really liked this. It's a starkly honest and in places painfully frank look at the toll motherhood places on women both physically and mentally. It's very far from the glowing cinematic depictions of maternity we usually see. Marlo loves her kids and she loves her husband but she's bone tired and seeing others around her coping better isn't helping matters. She's also pining for her lost youth and running into an old friend from her former life is a catalyst for the story. A story like this full of complex roles needs strong performances and we get those in spades from the leads.

Charlize Theron plays Marlo with a searing bravery. She's just fantastic here. The last time she was this good was 15 years ago and she won an Oscar for it in 2003's Monster. Here she transforms herself physically again and the results are immense and I hope she gets recognised for it. Despite her suffering she still makes Marlo very likeable with shards of warmth poking through her pained exterior. She just wants to be happy again. Her husband Drew is played well by Ron Livingston. Again he's a nice guy but one torn between wanting to be a good Da and using games and his job as an escape, something Marlo can't do.

Mackenzie Davis is Tully, the night nanny. She's like Mary Poppins, she can do anything. When she appears the stress of the earlier parts of the film evaporate. But so does some of it's honesty. Tully comes a bit too close to being a manic pixie dream girl. A character like this can rapidly drain a story of it's dramatic tension. Then you remember this is written by Diablo Cody and she's too clever of a writer to let this become predictable. The film is far from over. Some may take issue with the way the story plays out but for me it worked perfectly. It's satisfying and those moments in the film that stood out as odd earlier will suddenly make perfect sense.

As a man I'll never experience the problems and hardships motherhood can bring beyond being told about them but big credit to this film for shining a light on things that are rarely spoken of, especially not in Hollywood movies. With this, Juno and Young Adult, director Jason Reitman and writer Diablo Cody have made a loose trilogy about the aspects of womanhood that tend to be whispered about. They work very well together and I hope we don't have to wait too long for their next collaboration. And fingers crossed Charlize Theron is along for the ride.