• Rating:
• Genre: Drama
• Movie Type: Family Drama, Rural Drama
• Themes: Haunted By the Past, Farm Life, Opposites Attract
• Director: Hilary Birmingham
• Main Cast: Anson Mount, Julianne Nicholson, Glenn Fitzgerald, Catherine Kellner
• Release Year: 2000
• Country: US
• Run Time: 102 minutes
• MPAA Rating: R

Plot

Taking home both the audience prize for Best Director as well as the critics' prize for Best Film, writer-director Hilary Birmingham was the toast of the 2000 L.A. Independent Film Festival with this slice-of-life drama about a pair of motherless young men and their relationships with women. Tully Jr. (Anson Mount) and Earl (Glenn Fitzgerald) live on their father's Nebraska ranch, proud and independent to a fault. While the shy, reclusive Earl spends his free time watching movies, the cockier Tully works his way through a succession of short-term affairs and an off-again, on-again relationship with April (Catherine Kellner), a stripper in town. When their childhood friend Ella (Julianne Nicholson) returns to town to start a veterinary practice, however, Tully falls for her -- although the townsfolk have their doubts that he could ever commit to one woman. Birmingham based her film on a short story by author Tom McNeal; before Tully, the director cut her teeth producing PBS documentaries. Tully would go on to show at festivals in Toronto, Canada, and Melbourne, Australia. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

Review

Despite a plot more hackneyed than a young-adult novella, writer/director Hilary Birmingham's feature debut succeeds, largely on the chemistry of its two promising, twenty-something leads. When The Truth About Tully focuses on its major themes of father-son relationships and fraternal responsibility, the film feels forced. But when the emphasis shifts to the title character's relationships with women -- in particular, his burgeoning romance with the level-headed Ella (Julianne Nicholson) -- Tully comes alive. Nicholson and Anson Mount lend the film a lazy, curious sensuality, and Birmingham gives them the space needed to explore such heady issues as intimacy, sex, and commitment. In a vein similar to Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides, Tully offers a uniquely female perspective on a post-adolescent lothario: never once does Birmingham condescend to her character, nor does she try to simplify the nature of attraction. Although it garnered a warm reception at festivals in Canada and the U.S., Tully would remain in limbo for months before finding an outlet for release. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

Cast

• Anson Mount - Tully Coates
• Julianne Nicholson - Ella Smalley
• Glenn Fitzgerald - Earl Coates

Catherine Kellner - April Reece; John Diehl - Mal "Mac" MacAvoy; Natalie Canerday - Claire

Credit

Mark White - Production Designer; John Foster - Cinematographer; Brad Bergbom - Sound/Sound Designer; Affonso Goncalves - Editor; Hilary Birmingham - Director; Tom McNeal - Short Story Author

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