Tully

Front Row at the Movies by Shirrel Rhoades

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With the announcement that Emily Blunt will reprise the Julie Andrews role of a magical nanny in “Mary Poppins Returns,” one could argue that ex-stripper-turned-screenwriter Diablo Cody and director Jason Reitman have beat those retro filmmakers to the punch.

A new film called “Tully” gives us a nanny who shows up on the doorstep a worn-out mom with the announcement: “I’m here to take care of you.”

Pregnant and frustrated, Marlo (Charlize Theron) is quite receptive. She and husband (Ron Livingston) have their hands full with a difficult daughter and special-needs son. With no discussion of hourly rates, Tully (Mackenzie Davis) is the answer to a harried pregnant mother’s prayers.

Don’t many wives dream of getting their lives back without having to walk away from the one she has?

As my wife frequently tells me, “We need a wife.”

Presto! Here’s Tully to the rescue. Watching the kids. Cleaning the house. Even baking cupcakes. With the help of this delightful “manic pixie dream nurse,” Marlo is able to outsource those parts of her life that she finds burdensome.

At the same time, “Tully” raises certain questions that “Mary Poppins” with its single-father family tended to dance around: Does motherhood require a woman to sacrifice herself for her family?

Call it a feminist deliberation wrapped up with a cinematic bow.

So don’t be surprised that “Tully” offers a big twist, but we’ll avoid any spoilers here.

For this role, Oscar-winner Charlize Theron eschews the glamor and hotness that follows her like lingering pheromones (“Atomic Blonde,” “Aeon Flux,” or the perfume commercial “Dior J’adore: The Absolute Femininity”), but doesn’t totally revert to the tawdriness that won her that golden statuette (“Monster”). Here she’s just frumpy enough to convey a mother in crisis.

Mackenzie Davis (“Always Shine”) gives us a too-good-to-be-true alter ego as Tully, almost mechanical in her perfection.

“Tully” is currently working magic at Tropic Cinema.

This is the third pairing of Diablo Cody and Jason Reitman. And like “Juno,” this latest film delivers a very funny examination of some no-laughing-matter feminine concerns.

Reitman says, “I like to tell original stories, and … if you want to tell original stories, tell stories about women.”

While Mary Poppins may have been every little girl’s fantasy, a singing spoonful-of-sugar mommy substitute, “Tully” lays claim to being a modern-day mother’s fantasy.

Email Shirrel: srhoades@aol.com