Sweet release, due diligence, and confronting eventuality.

Zora (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is a single mother living in Britain with her terminally ill daughter Tuesday (Lola Petticrew). Unable to handle the stress of her situation, Zora pretends to go to work, selling off valuables to pay a nurse (Leah Harvey) to watch over her daughter daily for a much-needed sanity break. When the end comes, Tuesday meets Death (voice of Arinzé Kene) in the form of a filthy, size-shifting macaw parrot, but a well-timed joke holds Death’s attention and earns the girl a brief respite from eternity. When Zora at last returns home for the day, both daughter and Death are waiting… just before a bit of maternal instinct kicks in.

Partnering with A24, BFI, and BBC Film, Tuesday is the first feature from writer/director Daina Oniunas-Pusic, inspired by her own life experience growing up. Shot during COVID and requiring significant post time to render a digital performance for a personification of Death, the film was first shown in September of 2023 and only recently became available theatrically in the United States. It’s a favorite subject of Hollywood features, from The Seventh Seal to Meet Joe Black and Terry Pratchett’s “Hogfather” to Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey. These stories tend to mix the obvious humor of interacting with a psychopomp before unleashing the dire feelings and inevitable regrets, often meant to give purpose and sense of control to mortal beings who have none (note: I may have a degree of authority on this particular subject). Even Ebenezer Scrooge had to deal with the likes of the Third Spirit, but what sets this particular end-of-life tale apart for all the (final) rest?

Did anyone miss the part where Death is an actual parrot? The absurdity of this key idea is swiftly and expertly dispatched in the film’s opening, but the animation of this digital character was based upon the actor’s on-set appearance lending his voice along with the commanding presence of a painted-over performance. This incarnation is also haunted by the voices who call to him — souls in desperate need of release — a weight only a supernatural being could endure while simultaneously being crushed beneath it. Is it any wonder such an entity would accept any respite it could find, even with a strange girl who dared to try and make Death laugh? Of course, the time any reaper takes off for itself, the more tasks go undone in predictable ways, but the script accounts for this trope by using it for an opportunity instead of a timer counting down, and that make all the difference in the world.

The range of emotions Julia Louis-Dreyfus presents throughout the film is the reason you hire Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and it’s been a while since audiences have seen her in a role this meaty. Old enough to play Tuesday’s grandmother, it’s clear Zora is both running from and to her terminal daughter, and viewers are never given much explanation for how the situation came about. The complexity of Zora is tempered with Death’s singular off-mission curiosity and Tuesday’s sense her mother may not survive the impending loss. Moments of sorrow, wonder, anger, and joy are employed throughout the script, exuding angst over the inability to change the situation in spite of delaying it far too long.

Aside from the few moments where belief must be suspended to embrace the situation, Tuesday is a story that stays with you, a small production with huge ideas done in a unique way. Whether you prefer the embodiment of eventuality as a raven, goth girl, or a cloaked skeleton with a scythe, it isn’t the form of the grim reaper that’s important, only how one deals with it when their time comes… and it will. A friendly hello never hurt anyone, did it?

Tuesday is rated R for language, but honestly you can swear any of day of the week you like.

Four skull recommendation out of four