Hilary Birmingham’s methodical, precise “Tully” is the kind of movie that has sadly vanished in the predatory commercial marketplace. Evocative and observant, the movie is tenderly made though poorly written, sharply acted though overburdened by a script that veers wildly out of control.
Birmingham adapted a short story by Tom McNeal, and the film works best in miniature. The title character, Tully (Anson Mount), is a handsome, self-regarding Lothario who dominates his younger, passive brother Earl (Glenn Fitzgerald) while attempting to broker a peace with his solitary father (Bob Burrus). The film sharply captures the tentative, push-pull rhythms of Tully’s complicated relationship with Ella (the excellent Julia Nicholson), an outwardly plain though sharp-minded medical student to whom Tully is increasingly drawn. That story is quickly canceled out by a series of conflicts–the existence of the boys’ long-thought-dead mother, Tully’s compacted relationship with his self-named father, and the legal disposition of their farm–that fracture the solid, deft material of the opening. In these passages, Birmingham extends her reach though loses her grasp.
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“Tully” ((star)(star)1/2) opens Friday at Landmark’s Century Centre Cinema, 2828 N. Clark St. Running time: 1:42. No MPAA rating (sexuality, language, adult situations).
