Tuesday is not at all the movie being advertised. This, of course, is not the result of a dishonest campaign or a willingness to hoodwink potential viewers, but rather due to the simple fact that it is, to put it in simple terms, weird as hell. It would be impossible to cut an accurate trailer for it. This unintentional bait-and-switch is a good thing, at least for me, given that had I not been required to see this in a critical capacity I’d have avoided it entirely, my deep and abiding love for Queen Julia Louis-Dreyfus be damned.
In it she plays Zora, a single mother whose daughter Tuesday (Lola Petticrew) is terminally ill and wheelchair bound. Zora is unable to face the emotional reality of her daughter’s situation head-on, even if she’s doing everything in her power to provide the best end-of-life care. She’s a dutiful and devoted parent, but we get the sense that she’s unwilling to prepare herself for the eventual grief that will come with Tuesday’s passing. So much so that she’s inadvertently keeping her still very much alive daughter at arm’s length. Tuesday, on the other hand, seems to have made peace with her condition, even allowing herself many moments of joy despite being in a severely weakened state. She’s emotionally mature enough to recognize that the end is near, and to understand that the world will go on, even if she’s not in it.
The specter of death soon moves from the periphery of the story and into a character in an of itself. Represented here by a frequently stunning, digitally generated parrot (voiced by Arinzé Kene), death is a tangible, visible being that interacts with our world and can, in turn, be affected by it. Death is not just some fleeting concept. It is a physical entity. When Death arrives to take Tuesday to the next world, she has one request: she’d like to say goodbye to her mother. The bird grants this request, but Zora goes into protector mode, treating Death not as a fact of life, but as a force which must be kept at bay.
It’s a bold choice to have the film be outwardly supernatural, but it’s also a bit of a relief. There’s a playfulness here that keeps this from being a punishing experience, and the tangible nature of death allows the story to go to some surprising places (one may ask themselves what a world looks like where death has been…incapacitated). This playfulness allows the film to be frank and serious about its driving themes without dipping into maudlin territory or becoming so melancholy that respite is required. It’s an impressive management of tone, and one that Louis-Dreyfus traverses with dexterity. The role calls upon her comedy roots while also giving her a chance to flex her dramatic chops with equal aplomb. It also allows for a strong character arc with a thoroughly earned denouement.
Said arc is perhaps the film’s largest flourish, even if it’s the least showy (there’s a talking bird for chrissakes), and it’s also the most explicitly depicted. Tuesday, while performed beautifully by Petticrew, doesn’t have as drastic a change to undergo in a plot sense, but between the lines we can see the respect she feels toward her mother grow through their shared supernatural adventure. It’s an understanding that many don’t have the luxury of obtaining until well into adulthood (if at all), yet Tuesday’s truncated existence affords her a wisdom beyond her years — a wisdom that puts her in the mother role, at least in an emotional sense. Petticrew plays it with subtlety, driving forward a film that, while named after her character, is not necessarily about her. It’s a delicate dance between the two performers, and one that pays off quite well. The film’s closing moments hit hard while simultaneously evoking a joy typically absent from the subject matter. It’s playful without being whimsical; challenging without being difficult. Ultimately, it’s very inspiring.
The story-outside-the-story, if you will, depicts an imaginative supernatural concept, but doesn’t employ it as much more than a ticking clock for our central plot. It’s an attempt to make literal the concept that death is inevitable, and not necessarily bad, but for the most part it just feels like an ancillary idea that, by itself, could make a hell of a movie. Here it’s a bit undercooked, even if it leads to some of the film’s more striking imagery. Perhaps I’m making the mistake of judging a movie for not being a wholly different movie, but it’s a little jarring to have such a heady concept introduced and then only half-executed. A minor quibble — the film as it is works well and it sticks its landing flawlessly, but I reeeeeeally wanna see that movie.
Tuesday marks the feature debut of writer/director Daina Oniunas-Pusic. It’s an incredibly strong and unique freshman feature, and one that hopefully earns the filmmaker freedom to show us even more of her wonderful imagination.
Directed by Daina Oniunas-Pusic
Written by Daina Oniunas-Pusic
Starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Lola Petticrew, Leah Harvey, Arinzé Kene
Rated R, 110 minutes
