Tallulah

'TALLULAH': Four Stars (Out of Five)

A Netflix original drama flick; about a homeless girl, that kidnaps the baby of a neglectful mother, and then bonds with the mother of her ex-boyfriend, who she turns to for help. The film stars Ellen Page, Allison Janney, Tammy Blanchard and Evan Jonigkeit (it also features a cameo by Zachary Quinto). The movie was written and directed by first time feature filmmaker Sian Heder (a veteran writer of the popular TV series 'ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK'). The film has received mostly positive reviews from critics, and Netflix viewers alike. I enjoyed it a lot more than I first thought I would.

Tallulah (Page) and her boyfriend, Nico (Jonigkeit), have been traveling, and living in their van, for years. When Nico suddenly leaves one day, and takes the couple's money with him, Tallulah goes to Nico's mother, Margo (Janney), for help. When Margo wants nothing to do with her, Tallulah begins searching a nearby hotel for food (and money). That's when a partying mother (Blanchard) hires Tallulah to babysit her young child. When the neglectful mom returns home wasted, and passes out after cursing at the child, Tallulah decides to take the baby. She turns to Margo for help, telling her it's Nico's child. The two reluctantly bond.

The film's story seems odd, and I had doubts it would be that interesting (especially after first starting the movie), but it actually turns out to be a pretty involving film. Page and Janney are both excellent in the leads, especially Page, and the characters are both extremely flawed but likable. Heder also seems to be a pretty awesome new filmmaker to watch out for; who seems to do a great job of writing women roles. After this, I'll definitely check out her next movie.

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WOW! After a long time I saw a movie where I couldn't take my eyes or ears off a single frame.

The story as such isn't anything new. Each character is something we've seen before. The magic of this movie is in the way the story is told. The dialog, the characters, the acting, the pauses, and the music all comes together in just the right amount of drama, never going overboard in this highly emotional story.

It has brilliantly portrayed and written flawed characters. Ellen Page is simply phenomenal as Tallulah, a young woman living on the fringe with a golden heart but a messed up mind. Allison Janney as the scorned, sad, bitter wife also with a kind heart makes you feel for her. Tammy Blanchard as an unworthy mother, and a extremely flawed woman, yet with a good heart underneath manages to make you sympathetic towards her despite her apparently unforgivable flaws.

Oh and how I LOVE Uzo Aduba! She steals her scenes in a small part. She's simply amazing.

I also loved the end. It wasn't all hunky dory yet each character finds something worth fighting for and worth living for, despite their hopelessness.

I was stunned by how beautiful this movie was. I didn't really expect this much, and seeing a weak IMDb score made me want to review this film. All women should watch this film. It disregards all standard stereotypes we have about mothers, middle aged women and how we relate to each other. Some reviewers talk about it being predictable, Id say its the opposite. Aside from the general outline of events in the film, no valuable aspect is predictable. Although I cannot speak for the male audience, I am worried it plays too much on female emotions and values to be able to be a hit for both genders. But I might be wrong. It contains Oscar worthy performances and its screenplay is brilliant in itself. It reminded me a lot of the feeling I got stuck with after watching American Beauty.That feeling is still there though. Don't know about this one.

One nice thing up front: this movie gets how New York City works when it comes to giving tickets (though I don't know if it would've gotten a 'boot', more likely it would've been towed, but I digress).

Tallulah is a prototypical example of an independent film that features two very well known actors (at least to some, I'd think Ellen Page is and Allison Janey may be hit or miss for some, still, even after all these years), and *feels* like a first time Sundance-festival-bound indie film. But it's not necessarily a negative, or something to be wary of, in the case of this story. A lot of that does come down to the actors, and (mostly) realistic reactions to how the story goes into one 'oh s***' moment after another and, again, it comes down to the choices the characters make which can be desperate, foolish, but also for their own good in a way.

Tallulah is wandering from place to place being basically if Juno several years later was a hobo and lost a lot of the snappy dialog (Page in slightly similar attire, though grungier, more "street" to give it obnoxious quotes). Her man friend Nico runs off on her for some reason or another (he wants to go home to his mom, she doesn't want to do that, and during the night he splits - oh, and why he split in the first place is and isn't clear). So she finds his mother's apartment in New York city, she rejects him, and the she ambles about into the Waldwick hotel where she stumbles upon a drunken socialite-dilettante (Tammy Blanchard in a performance that may be overlooked but she gives this blonde dummie a lot more depth than you'd expect, some of that's in the writing). She has a baby, and Tallulah is tasked to take care of her while she's out for the day, thinking she's a housekeeper. Later this blonde lady stumbles drunk into bed, Tallulah feels wrong about leaving a crying baby all alone and kidnaps her.

Good premise and a strong beginning to a story that doesn't give us a protagonist who is necessarily 'likeable' or 'sympathetic' just because we're told to like her. She's complicated, she's lost, she explains later on in the story briefly and just enough so that her faults go back to a place of abandonment (she does turn to Nico's mother, Allison Janey, for help, and she reluctantly agrees making the spine of the movie). What I liked is that the story gives some things to explain motivations for stuff - why Janey's character Margo can't let go of her past relationship which ended in betrayal (oddly enough Janey once again being the 'beard' to a gay man in a marriage like on Masters of Sex) and why Tallulah can't stay still for very long - but the actors are given a lot of room to play with, to find the characters on screen so that we can also relate to them well enough. So when something "quirky" like Tallulah pulling down all of Margo's ex's paintings off the wall to 're-paint' at first seems to turn out badly and then becomes a bonding scene, it works because we can believe these people in it.

In other words, this is a movie that has some light crime-elements to it with the kidnapped baby, maybe in its way a hybrid of a New York intellectual comedy-drama and a slight, a little bit, of neo-noir, and it mostly works if you like Page and Janey (oh and some nice character people like Zachary Quinto as the 'new' guy for Margo's ex, David Zayas and Orange is the New Black's Aduba pop up and the latter even gets some good character motivation, nicely done writer-director Heder). It also has that, um, slightly odd touches that at first are acceptable and then pop up at the very end: floating in a dream can work once, but twice, I'm not so sure. And there are certain story contrivances that do come up, mostly in the last third or act or whatever, and it does make you realize this story's coming to a wrap-up in some ways that do and don't make sense.

But for all of these misgivings Tallulah does function as a quality dramatic film with a few light touches about what it means to have a lack of options or resolve, to really be caught up in existential dilemmas that matter, whether it's having a baby that's not yours to become close with or to let go of a marriage that didn't work when YOU are a writer about marriage (yeah, that's here as a thing). If you asked what I thought I'd say 'I liked it, it has heart, and... that's about it, and it's enough.'

Being a senior citizen as I am, it's easy to get stuck in the past watching old familiar movies. A couple of years ago I decided to "not go there" and see what the young crop of actors have that I might be missing. One of my first "new" favorites was Ellen Page.....a powerhouse of a actor in such a small package. I believe Tallulah is about her 10th movie I've seen her in and have never been disappointed! You know a movie is top notch when you forget they are all acting and the story becomes real in your mind. Such is Tallulah. A powerful story that makes you feel happy and sad while laughing and crying. A very endearing movie that I'm sure I'll repeat watch!