FILM REVIEW: Tallulah (2016)

Tallulah Film Review

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Netflix are killing it this year with their original series and films. Granted, there have been a few duds, but on the whole, their content has been fantastic.

I’m one of those people who does not rate Ellen Page as an actress. At all. She’s very much a one trick pony. If she’d play a different character every once in awhile, show some range, my opinion would change. But for now Ellen Page is in the same group of actors who can only play themselves.

This isn’t always a bad thing. As is the case with Tallulah. But it’s mostly because this film is so well written. And it puts Ellen Page in situations that I’ve never seen her in before.

Tallulah is about a young woman who lives her life out on the road, always travelling and never settling in one place. After a bad break-up she tries to find him and instead finds his unforgiving mother. With nowhere else to go, Tallulah finds herself in a hotel pretending to be hotel staff and is asked to babysit the child of an irresponsible (and a little unhinged) mother. After seeing how the mother acts and and how she neglects her child, Tallulah makes the decision to take the child.

The film then tells the story of Tallulah attempting to take care of the child, whilst trying to form a relationship with her ex-boyfriend’s mother, Margo, who has decided to take in Tallulah and the baby, believing that the baby is her granddaughter. Meanwhile, Carolyn’s true feelings for her child come to light as she desperately tries to aid the police in their search.

It’s engaging stuff.

Tallulah film
Source: theatlantic.com

Ellen Page’s performance, such as it is, is definitely at its strongest whenever Tallulah is interacting with or talking about the child. The rest of the cast are great. The film reunites Ellen Page with her Juno co-star Allison Janney (as Margo) and, naturally, they’ve got great chemistry together. They share most of their screen time with one another, so this is a plus.

The standout performance from the film has to be Tammy Blanchard as Carolyn, the slightly unhinged mother from whom Tallulah takes the child. Mostly crazy, sometimes sympathetic, always engaging.

These are the three main players of the film other than the young toddler. All give good performances. Not the child of course. They just have to show up and look adorable. Mission accomplished there.

There’s this nice theme throughout the film about Tallulah not having purpose or direction in her life and her explaining to Margo that she wouldn’t mind if she just floated away from the Earth as she has nothing keeping her there. By the end, she does. It’s a beautiful sequence that ends the film.

There’s another scene just before this that’s just as powerful, with one of the officers asking as he takes Tallulah away in the police car “So, do you make a habit of taking kids into protective custody?”

It makes for a nice ending. He respects and understands what she did. But there are proper channels for that sort of thing. It’s nice. Gives you a warm fuzzy feeling inside.

That’s Tallulah all over really. There’s not much to say other than that. It’s just a nice film (when all the drama has concluded) with strong performances and some nice themes; well written and directed too. It’s not going to change your life and it’s not amazing. But it’s good.

Also, could Ellen Page try portraying a different character in future? She has potential, I just want to see it let loose.

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