Tuesday is a dark fairy tale led by an incredibly good Julia Louis-Dreyfus Canon City Daily Record

Lola Petticrew, left, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus on Tuesday. (A24/TNS)

Those of us film critics who are lucky enough to do this job are always trying to squeeze in about two extra hours a week to watch one more new movie. Because you never know. Which is to say: I'm extremely happy to have seen Tuesday, which demands and receives new and challenging things from Julia Louis-Dreyfus while announcing a terrific new filmmaker, Croatian writer-director Daina O . She has created a flawed but singular fairy tale for adults, but not just for adults. There is real magic and deep feeling behind it.

Let me describe it in a misleading way. Tuesday is the name of the 15-year-old girl who uses a wheelchair, hooked up to IVs, under the care of a home health nurse while her mother works. Even when she's not working, the mother, Zora, played by Louis-Dreyfus, doesn't spend much meaningful time with her daughter. Tuesday is dying. Zora is not coping well. Grief tends to come before the death of a loved one, and Zora's grief has thrown her into a nervous whirlwind of activity and chatter.

Now let's move on to the fantasy aspect of Tuesday. The first character we meet in Pusis' story is a macaw, actually a death macaw. (The bird, which can dramatically change size from tiny to mid-Kong, is introduced in the credits simply as Death.) With a brief, calm movement of its wing, Death puts an end to humans whose lamentations. Death has heard and will hear. This dirty but remarkable bird, in dire need of a bath and some peace, struggles to ignore Earth's perpetual chorus of laments.

It's now time for Tuesday, as his breathing has become increasingly labored. The macaw arrives at Zoras' house in London at just the right time. (By the way, death can talk; Nigerian actor Arinz Kene provides a vocal characterization of supernatural depth but surprisingly friendly.)

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For a time, Tuesday and Death find comfort in each other's temporary companionship. As the macaw shrinks, he enjoys a much-needed bath in the Tuesday bathroom sink. Tuesday plays one of her favorite songs, Ice Cubes It Was a Good Day, which also happens to be one of Deaths' favorites. They hover, in a scene that isn't played for the kind of laughs one might expect, even from an off-center image distributed in A24.

Early on, we see Zora bartering with a taxidermist, trying to sell a few stuffed rats, so we know money is tight for this woman, because dying is expensive. Tuesday shifts to a darker, wilder shade once Zora encounters the macaw and does everything she can, including swallowing the bird whole! to extend her daughters' lives a little, even if Zora has not yet used the time they have wisely. Meanwhile, an apocalypse, glimpsed in a few brief images, rages throughout London and probably elsewhere.

The film is scattered and, here and there, stumbles a bit in its second half. And yet, the spell never broke for me. Daily grief, like Louis-Dreyfuss's surprised and shaken nonverbal reaction to the taxidermist's offhand question about her daughter's age, makes Tuesday a very rewarding experience. Louis-Dreyfus is wonderful in this, ready for anything, without ever softening his character's flaws, panic or fear. Lola Petticrew makes Tuesday both convincing and admirable in her frankness. As Tuesday's caregiver, Leah Harvey is doing just as well.

None of their work would be as effective without Death's wonderfully concrete digital execution, thanks to visual effects supervisors Mike Stillwell and Andrew Simmonds. On Tuesday, there was barely a moment wasted by shock cuts, jump scares or anything at odds with the atmosphere of quiet amazement. Sound designer Gunnar Skarsson, avian shivers and human wails fill the soundtrack when necessary, but sparingly. And when Death speaks, we see and hear the hesitation, even if it's something as simple as his appreciation of sarcasm. (Jesus was definitely interested, he notes.) This is, after all, a creature that hasn't spoken in about 200 years.

Magical talking birds have appeared in and out of many fairy tales and folk tales, from Gozzis' play The Green Bird to Sicilian folklore and beyond. This one is really something. I can't wait to see what this filmmaker does next. Same with Louis-Dreyfus, even if Tuesday reminds us that she can do almost anything.

Tuesday 3.5 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: R (for language)

Duration: 1:51

How to watch: Premieres in theaters June 14

Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.