Tully (2018) ****

From the director Jason Reitman, who brought us “Young Adult,” and writer Diablo Cody (“Juno”) comes another Charlize Theron vehicle. In “Tully,” Theron plays Marlo, a former free spirit, now with a husband, 2 kids in private school, and a late-life baby on the way. The downside to having a life full of blessings like these is that they can be exhausting, but if you don't feel bursting with gratitude on a daily basis, you feel guilty. Marlo is exhausted and guilty, and once she delivers her baby, she sinks fully into postpartum depression.

Sounds like a fun movie, right? Well, at this point in the film, the only thing making it watchable is Marlo's wicked sense of humor and the hilariously clueless reactions it gets from her family and acquaintances.

Enter Tully the night-nanny (Mackenzie Davis). What's a night-nanny, you ask? It's a nanny who comes to your house around 10 p.m. and spends the night taking care of your newborn. When the kid wakes up hungry, the night-nanny will either feed him a bottle or bring him to your room so you can breast-feed him while you are half-asleep. Then you get to roll back over and return to full sleep, while the night-nanny burps the kid, puts him back to bed, and straightens up the house. A night-nanny is the kind of help Marlo's rich brother and his pretentious wife hire, but she turns out to be just the thing for Marlo. The 25-year-old Tully has all the energy and enthusiasm that Marlo lacks, and she takes care of Marlo as much as she does the baby. Soon, Marlo is looking and acting like her old self again, but (You guessed it!) there turns out to be more to Tully than meets the eye.

Fortunately, this isn't one of those “Hand That Rocks the Cradle” stories, where Tully winds up trying to steal Marlo's baby or husband or whatever. “Tully” is a story about coping when you have the life you thought you wanted. It's about being there for your family without forgetting who you are, and who you used to be. It starts out looking like a downer, but it's really funny and really poignant, and definitely worth watching.

4 stars out of 5