|
***1/2
STARS OUT OF FOUR (Not rated)
"Tully" is set on a Nebraska dairy farm, one without
a woman but where thoughts about women are often in the minds
of the men. Tully Coates Sr. (Bob Burrus) still loves the wife
who walked away from the family years ago. Tully Jr. (Anson
Mount) is a ladies' man, dating a local stripper named April
(Catherine Kellner). His younger brother, Earl (Glenn Fitzgerald),
is quieter and more open, with a soft spot for Ella Smalley
(Julianne Nicholson), who is home for the summer from studying
to be a veterinarian.
In this rural community, everyone knows one another. They even
think they know each other's secrets, but there are dark secrets
at the heart of the Tully family which only the father knows.
One, revealed fairly early, is that his wife was not killed
in a crash, as he told the boys, but simply abandoned them.
The other I will leave for you to discover. The mother is not
only alive but dying of cancer in a hospital, where $300,000
in medical bills have caused a lien to be brought against the
farm: The Coates might lose it, after their decades of hard
work. Here in Nebraska, the exotic dancers are not very exotic.
April is a neighbor girl who strips in a nearby town because
the money is good but still has small-town notions about going
steady. After she and Tully Jr. spend an enjoyable afternoon
on the hood of his Cadillac, she claims territorial privilege:
From now on, that hood is hers, and she doesn't want to hear
about Tully inviting any other girl up there.
Earl
has a sort of crush on Ella, who is red-haired and freckled,
open-faced and clear about her own feelings. She would like
to be dating Tully, but only if he can outgrow his tomcatting
and see her as worthy of his loyalty. In her own way, during
this summer, she will hook Tully and reel him in, and it may
be years before he figures out what really happened. Nicholson
is wonderful in the role, wise about men, aware of her own power.
The
anchoring performance in the movie is by Burrus, as the father.
Long days alone in the fields have made him taciturn. The boys
notice that the lights burn late in the farm office, that he
is worried about something, and then they discover their line
of credit is cut off at the bank.
During
the course of the movie, old hurts will be remembered, old secrets
revealed, and new loves will form. "Tully," directed
by Hilary Birmingham, co-written by Birmingham and Matt Drake,
and based on a short story by Tom McNeal, doesn't turn those
developments into a rural soap opera but pays close and respectful
attention to its characters, allowing them time to develop and
deepen--so that, for example, we understand exactly what's happening
when Earl warns his brother to be careful with Ella. In other
words, don't treat her like another one of his conquests.
Even
Ella is bemused by Tully's reputation: "What's it like
to drive women crazy?" What Tully is far from understanding
is that Ella knows how to drive him crazy, and there is a lovely
scene when she takes him to her favorite swimming hole and allows
him to feel desire for her, and pretends that wasn't on her
mind. Women know how to win the Coates men, and it's clear that
the old man forgives his faithless wife and still loves her.
The
movie is a matter-of-fact journal of daily farm life during
its opening scenes, and its dramatic secrets are revealed only
slowly. At the end, when there is a tragedy, it has been hanging
there, waiting to happen, for four or five scenes. Birmingham
has a writer's patience and attention to detail, and doesn't
hurry things along. She knows that audiences may think they
like speed, but they're more deeply moved by depth.
By
the end of the film, both times I saw it, there were some tears
in the audience. They confirm something I've suspected: Audiences
are more touched by goodness than by sadness. Tears come not
because something terrible has happened, but because something
good has happened, which reveals the willingness of people to
be brave and kind. We might quarrel with the crucial decision
at the end of "Tully," but we have to honor it because
we know it comes from a good place. So does the whole movie.
Copyright
© Chicago Sun-Times Inc.
–
Roger Ebert
http://www.suntimes.com/output/ebert1/wkp-news-tully08f.html
|
