Tully

Released 2002
Stars Anson Mount, Julianne Nicholson, Glenn Fitzgerald, Catherine Kellner, Bob Burrus
Directed by Hilary Birmingham

"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.

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.

Summary by Roger Ebert

If I could make a movie, it would be like this one. It has wonderfully drawn characters, and it side-steps typical plot points that we'd expect to see in such a setup. One example is you'd expect the brothers to fight over the local girl, Ella. The trailer was carefully edited to show them physically fighting over her, but the movie's not like that at all. They both start as her friend, and they never compete for her. Earl warns Tully to not hurt her because he cares for her as a friend, but he also cares for his brother. The only thing that happens in this movie that we expect is Tully and Ella falling in love, but their path is nothing like we usually see. Typically a couple jumps into bed and falls madly in love in the space of a couple days, but this movie gives them time to become friends first. What a refreshing change. Another refreshing change is to have a movie that isn't about plot. It does have some surprises, but it's more concerned about how the characters react to them than with the surprises themselves. It's really quite a treasure. --Bill Alward, November 26, 2003