THE
BOSTON HERALD, November
29, 2002 IMPRESSIVE
'TULLY' GIVES VIEWERS A STRAIGHT STORY
By James Verniere
***
1/2 STARS OUT OF FOUR
At a time when independent filmmakers are scrambling to come up
with the next big thing, a la ``The Blair Witch Project,'' traditional
American film drama has taken a back seat.
This is not the case with Hilary Birmingham's incredibly accomplished
debut film ``Tully,'' a work both firmly rooted in the tradition
of rural American drama and yet utterly different and refreshing.
A probing, insightful, extremely well-acted depiction of the
lives of three young people in the Midwest, ``Tully,'' which
was a highlight of the last Boston Film Festival and has much
in common with the recent indie gem ``Ciao, America,'' has taken
a long, circuitous road to theaters.
Formerly known as ``The Truth About Tully'' and based on the
O. Henry Award-winning story ``What Happened to Tully?'' by
Tom McNeal, the film had another name change after it was announced
Jonathan Demme was making ``The Truth About Charlie.'' The makers
of ``Tully'' have also watched two distributors fold their tents
before getting their film into theaters.
Now, area viewers have a second chance to catch up with a film
that has been rightly compared to such recent ``Midwesterners''
as ``The Straight Story,'' ``Boys Don't Cry'' and ``Election.''
Tully Coates Jr. (Anson Mount), the film's anti-heroic heartthrob
and eldest son, recalls such figures from American film as Paul
Newman's Hud Bannon from Martin Ritt's ``Hud'' (``the man with
barbed wire soul'') and, especially, James Dean's Cal Trask
from Elia Kazan's ``East of Eden.''
Like Cal Trask, Tully Coates lives on a farm, competes with
his brother and is estranged from his father (Bob Burrus), who
has been distant ever since the loss of his wife when the boys
were infants. Tully's shy, younger brother Earl (Glenn Fitzgerald)
has a secret he has not shared and lives in the shadow of his
more extroverted and sexually experienced sibling. One source
of fraternal competition is Earl's tart-tongued friend Ella
(the extremely appealing Julianne Nicholson), who confuses Tully
by rebuffing his advances and offering friendship instead. For
Tully, women are either absent or conquests.
``Tully'' is about a dark family secret, a secret that can either
shatter it or help it achieve reconciliation. Birmingham's eye
for detail is second only to her ability to tell a story and
get the best out of her actors. These are not old-fashioned
virtues for a filmmaker. They are essential and increasingly
rare in the thicket of first-time filmmakers.
Birmingham's vision of a Midwestern late summer is particularly
rich and evocative. Unlike ``Far From Heaven,'' ``Tully'' reminds
us of '50s and '60s classics without parodying them. ``Tully''
captures the beauty and spaciousness of the modern American
farmland, and Birmingham, whose background is in documentary
filmmaking, is a real find. Bookmark this name.
