Tully film review – A tricksy and acerbically witty drama

The tricksy and acerbically witty drama going to make her much richer but it feels like it’s been tailor-made for this fearless and hugely talented actress.

Theron plays Marlo, a stressed-out suburbanite who has greeted the arrival of her self-loathing.

When her special-needs son faces expulsion from kindergarten, and with her husband (Ron Livingston) finding refuge in a zombie-blasting video game, she reluctantly takes up an offer from her rich brother (Mark Duplass) to pay for a “night nanny” – a sort of a nocturnal Mary Poppins who will arrive after dark and only wake her up when the baby needs feeding.

When Tully (Mackenzie Davis), a free-spirited 26-year-old with an uncanny insight into Marlo’s troubled mind, materialises at their suburban New York home the plot begins to twist and turn.

This is the third fi lm delivered by director Jason Reitman and writer Diablo Cody, after Juno and Young Adult, and the ending is likely to make it their most divisive.

But I can’t imagine any argument about Theron’s brilliant performance.