Themes: Haunted By the Past, Farm Life, Opposites Attract
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
Catherine Kellner - April Reece; John Diehl - Mal "Mac" MacAvoy; Natalie Canerday - Claire
Credit
Hilary Birmingham - Director, Affonso Goncalves - Editor, Mark White - Production Designer, John Foster - Cinematographer, Brad Bergbom - Sound/Sound Designer, Tom McNeal - Short Story Author
Tully is a 2000 drama film written and directed by Hilary Birmingham. It was screened at the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival on April 14, 2000 and received a limited release in the United States on November 1, 2002. The film is based on a O. Henry Prize-winning short story by author Tom McNeal.
The story centers around the Coates brothers, Tully (Anson Mount) and Earl (Glenn Fitzgerald), who live on their father's (Bob Burrus) ranch in rural Nebraska. Their mother abandoned the family at a young age. Tully is very outgoing and has relationships with many women, including a stripper, April (Catherine Kellner). Earl is more of an introvert.
Ella (Julianne Nicholson), a childhood friend comes back to town to start a veterinarian practice. She is friends with both of the Coates brothers. Initially, it appears that Ella has more in common with Earl, as she is reserved and not the typical woman that Tully dates. However, they start a relationship.
The elder Coates clearly misses his wife, and as the film develops, his financial problems worsen. It is eventually shown that his financial problems are due to his wife's medical bills (he never got a divorce). Tully Sr. commits suicide. The film's climax is how the brothers and Ella react to this tragic event.
As deliberately paced as a late-afternoon amble around a homestead, the movie occasionally stops in its tracks to take a deep breath and soak in more of the rural atmosphere. Although this tendency to dawdle may frustrate viewers accustomed to a barrage of visual stimulation, the movie's unhurried rhythm eventually works a quiet spell, and after a while you find yourself settling back, adjusting to the film's bucolic metabolism and appreciating its eye and ear for detail.[2]
Holden also compliments the acting, particularly Nicholson, who he describes as "luminous in an utterly natural way".[2]Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times also commends the film's pace, stating that the "deliberate speed goes hand in hand with its unmistakable sense of place, its attraction to the rhythms of farm life and the unhurried sensibility of its small-town Nebraska setting."[1]
Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B+ rating, and writes, "the believable young people growing on this plot of soil are never predictable; neither are the unmannered, affecting performances."[3]
