4/10 Although not quite as egregious as the recent Netflix movies I’ve watched recently, “Tallulah” is a pretty pointless movie that you can skip. A few aspects work but the story is full of unlikable, irritating characters that ensures I will never revisit this movie. As for the elements that work, the movie is decently acted. Our two co-leads, Ellen Page and Allison Janney are talented actors and do their best with the grating characters they are portraying. The pacing works too so you won’t find yourself bored at any point. The unexpected dream/fantasy sequences, though brief, worked for me. I liked that the movie ended in a realistic, grounded way. Those are the positive aspects and before I get to the negatives I have to point out that the cinematography, score, soundtrack, direction, production design, costume design, etc. were all completely and utterly generic and vanilla. Not that this is a flashy or showy movie at all but some directorial style or signature would have been nice to spice the movie up and bring more life into it. The only examples of that were the aforementioned fantasy/dream sequences, which I enjoyed. Sadly, those were brief and there were not enough moments like those throughout the movie to make it interesting enough to really grab my attention. As for the negative aspects, like I stated earlier, there is almost no character to root for. You’ve got a crying baby, a girl who treats good people around her like crap and is constantly stealing and lying, a “woe is me” woman who can’t face reality and is living a lie and an alcoholic, terrible mother who hates her child. The terrible mother was so over the top as a terrible mother that it felt cartoonish and hokey. There are some insanely convenient coincidences and a subplot involving Allison Janney and a worker where she lives is abandoned without any closure, leaving the subplot feeling pretty pointless to begin with. There have been other movies where characters get stuck with a baby or a child that isn’t their own and have to cope with the newfound responsibility. The other films in that wheelhouse tend to be funnier or have more heart than this forgettable movie does. Page and Janney were both in the vastly superior “Juno” so if you want to see this pair give terrific performances, playing better characters in a vastly better film, stick with “Juno” and avoid this movie like a stranger watching over your baby.
#DontMarGoSeeThisMovie / #TakeAPageOutOfTheCrazyBook / #AwayWeMargo / #SkipIt / #TakeAdVANtageOfTheSituation / #Momshell
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