BEFORE: I've made it to my special Mother's Day film - it was either going to be this one, or "Motherhood" with Uma Thurman, and that film didn't seem to link to very much, it didn't fit in with my plan to get from "Avengers: Endgame" to "X-Men: Dark Phoenix", anyway. There are probably a few other films on my list that would have worked, because mother characters are everywhere, but I wanted a safe bet that also fit in with my larger plan. "Thirteen", "Serial Mom", "Cheaper By the Dozen", "Snatched", "Life of the Party" or even "The Blind Side" could have worked here, but I'm keeping an eye on making it to the next benchmark Marvel movie.
It's the end of the Ron Livingston chain, as he carries over again from "Shimmer Lake", and this would have nearly been a dead end, if not for the one link I'm going to follow for tomorrow's film, which will be a documentary.
THE PLOT: A struggling mother of three forms an unexpected bond with the night nanny hired to help with her newborn baby.
AFTER: I'm going to try very hard not to spoil this one, only then I can only say so much about it. Let's just say it uses a very specific narrative trick, which for once does not involve jumping around the time-stream, or putting its scenes in random order. And I've seen this trick used twice already this year, and if I say which films also used it, that would also give things away. I could also say two words here that would give away the store, so I'm obviously not going to do that.
All you really need to know going in is that Marlo, Charlize Theron's character, is pregnant with her third child, and during the final month of pregnancy we see her running errands, dealing with her brother and his wife, her husband and other two children. Her daughter seems like a real together kid, but her son is autistic or at least somewhere on the spectrum. He freaks out whenever there's anything different about his routine, he's scared by loud noises, even unexpected toilet flushes (to be fair, automatic toilets everywhere should be outlawed...) and every night he needs to be "brushed" so he can relax enough to go to bed.
So it makes sense that Marlo is stressed out, stretched out and at the end of her rope - and that's the main message here for Mother's Day. This is a woman who's been giving, doing and working on her kids for so long that it probably seems like that's ALL she does. Meanwhile, her husband's way of "helping" is to put his headphones on while he plays video games. To be fair, he is the breadwinner, with some kind of tech job, but even that requires that he go on business trips to install and fix servers, or something, so that leaves Marlo to get the kids up and off to school, to all the sporting events and other activities, and still get dinner on the table. It just doesn't seem fair.
So when her brother recommends a "night nanny", and even offers to pay for it, that seems like it can only improve her life. Tully shows up one night and takes over the baby-care responsibilities overnight, and Marlo can finally get some sleep. Tully even brings the baby in to her bedroom when it's time for a 2 am feeding. And somehow that doesn't feel weird at all, despite how personal it all is. Tully becomes an important part of the family, and thanks to a "surplus of energy", she even takes to cleaning the house in the middle of the night, or making cupcakes for Marlo to take to school the next day. Problem solved, right?
Oh, if only. Tully makes some references to her complicated personal life, and hints that she might even be involved with several men and also her roommate. Marlo tries to advise her on these matters, and seems to share a bond with Tully on some deep level. Tully declares that she's there to help Marlo fix everything in her life, which doesn't seem to have any limits, like she even starts advising Marlo on how to re-connect sexually with her husband. Then when Tully suggests they both deserve a night off, they drive off into NYC (Brooklyn, to be exact) and go bar-hopping, without telling anyone where they're going.
And that's about all I'm willing to say about the plot - but there are clues throughout the film about what's really happening here, if you're inclined to pay attention and try to put it all together. But even when you know, if you go back and think about what went before, it sort of all works, but then there are parts that clearly don't. Some things might be able to be accounted for due to some form of post-partum depression, but I think that only goes so far, in the end.
Also starring Charlize Theron (last heard in Kubo and the Two Strings), Mackenzie Davis (last seen in "The Martian"), Mark Duplass (last seen in "People Like Us"), Diane Lane (last seen in "Streets of Fire"), Asher Miles Fallica, Lia Frankland, Elaine Tan, Gameela Wright, Tattiawna Jones, Stormy Ent, Maddie Dixon-Poirier, Bella Star Choy, Dominic Good, Joshua Pak, Emily Haine, Marceline Hugot, Colleen Wheeler, Xantha Radley, John Shaw and the voice of Kevin Clash (last heard in "Muppets From Space").
RATING: 5 out of 10 Cyndi Lauper songs
No comments:
Post a Comment