Tallulah
I really liked Tallulah. It is a heavy drama, but not one that only tries to make you cry. What kept me interested was the fact that the whole story begins with a decision that makes sense for a few seconds and becomes completely absurd the moment you stop to think about it.
Tallulah lives in a van, moves from place to place and seems to have learned not to need anyone. One day, she ends up looking after a little girl in a hotel room while the child’s mother is drunk, overwhelmed and far more interested in herself than in her daughter. Tallulah sees the condition the child is in, panics and takes her away.
From that moment, I kept asking the same question: why did she not go back to the hotel? She could have taken the child somewhere safe for a few hours, waited for the mother to react and returned to tell the police exactly what had happened. Maybe they would not have fully believed her. Maybe she would still have been arrested. But there were witnesses, cameras and a hotel room showing the state that woman was in. Everything could have been different.
Instead, she runs. The more she tries to fix the situation, the bigger the lie becomes. That is what works best in the film. You cannot support what Tallulah does, but you cannot see her as a simple kidnapper either. You know she has done something terrible, but you also understand why she did it.
Elliot Page is excellent. Tallulah looks tough, independent and ready to disappear at any moment, but underneath she is completely lost. She does not know how to build a normal life or trust anyone, and suddenly she is caring for a child and pretending to belong to a family. Page makes those contradictions believable without forcing us to like the character.
Allison Janney may be even better. Margo begins as a cold, tired and distant woman, but it gradually becomes clear that she is also deeply lonely. The relationship between the two women is the best part of the film. They do not suddenly become a perfect family; they simply begin to fill spaces in each other’s lives that have been empty for too long.
Tammy Blanchard has perhaps the most difficult role. Her character is selfish, frustrating and often a terrible mother, but she is not played as a cartoon villain. She is a woman who does not know what to do with her daughter or with herself. That does not excuse her, but it makes the story more interesting.
At its heart, Tallulah is about women who do not fit the traditional image of motherhood. One has a daughter and cannot care for her. Another takes a child who is not hers because she believes she can do better. A third is still trying to deal with the loss of her relationship with her own son. None of them has the answers.
The film could easily have felt like a television melodrama, but the performances prevent that. There is humor, absurdity and tenderness, although the feeling that everything may collapse never disappears.
Tallulah is sad, uncomfortable and very human. The three actresses are excellent and make a potentially exaggerated story feel surprisingly close. I liked it a lot, although I still think that if Tallulah had simply returned to the hotel and told the truth, she could have avoided almost the entire disaster.
Of course, then there would be no film.
Tallulah lives in a van, moves from place to place and seems to have learned not to need anyone. One day, she ends up looking after a little girl in a hotel room while the child’s mother is drunk, overwhelmed and far more interested in herself than in her daughter. Tallulah sees the condition the child is in, panics and takes her away.
From that moment, I kept asking the same question: why did she not go back to the hotel? She could have taken the child somewhere safe for a few hours, waited for the mother to react and returned to tell the police exactly what had happened. Maybe they would not have fully believed her. Maybe she would still have been arrested. But there were witnesses, cameras and a hotel room showing the state that woman was in. Everything could have been different.
Instead, she runs. The more she tries to fix the situation, the bigger the lie becomes. That is what works best in the film. You cannot support what Tallulah does, but you cannot see her as a simple kidnapper either. You know she has done something terrible, but you also understand why she did it.
Elliot Page is excellent. Tallulah looks tough, independent and ready to disappear at any moment, but underneath she is completely lost. She does not know how to build a normal life or trust anyone, and suddenly she is caring for a child and pretending to belong to a family. Page makes those contradictions believable without forcing us to like the character.
Allison Janney may be even better. Margo begins as a cold, tired and distant woman, but it gradually becomes clear that she is also deeply lonely. The relationship between the two women is the best part of the film. They do not suddenly become a perfect family; they simply begin to fill spaces in each other’s lives that have been empty for too long.
Tammy Blanchard has perhaps the most difficult role. Her character is selfish, frustrating and often a terrible mother, but she is not played as a cartoon villain. She is a woman who does not know what to do with her daughter or with herself. That does not excuse her, but it makes the story more interesting.
At its heart, Tallulah is about women who do not fit the traditional image of motherhood. One has a daughter and cannot care for her. Another takes a child who is not hers because she believes she can do better. A third is still trying to deal with the loss of her relationship with her own son. None of them has the answers.
The film could easily have felt like a television melodrama, but the performances prevent that. There is humor, absurdity and tenderness, although the feeling that everything may collapse never disappears.
Tallulah is sad, uncomfortable and very human. The three actresses are excellent and make a potentially exaggerated story feel surprisingly close. I liked it a lot, although I still think that if Tallulah had simply returned to the hotel and told the truth, she could have avoided almost the entire disaster.
Of course, then there would be no film.
Mini Review: I really liked Tallulah. It is a heavy drama, but not one that only tries to make you cry. What kept me interested was the fact that the whole story begins with a decision that makes sense for a few seconds and becomes completely absurd the moment you stop to think about it. Tallulah lives in a van, moves from place to place and seems to have learned not to need anyone. One day, she ends up looking after a little girl in a hotel room while the...
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