The Tale

I've been meaning to watch this movie for quite a while. I've watched the trailer and read the sinopses. Watching it I wished I went into it without knowing what it was about just because I feel it would be even a more compelling experience. This movie will make you feel uncomfortable, disgusted, heartbroken, dizzy... And that's why I believe it is such a good one. There will be moments in which you'll find yourself looking away. It's an horrible story seen through the eyes of a woman who is forced to face the truth about something in her past that she managed to hide from herself, as a defense mechanism. It really makes you wonder how many times you and the people around you sugarcoat things, because the reality is just to awful to accept. Both the leading actresses were amazing, the adult Jenny, shocked, in denial, angry, heartbroken and 13 year old Jenny, confused, broken, innocent, trying to cope with something no child should have to. It's shocking and brutal. It will leave you feeling sick to your stomach, and it will be completely worth the watch.

Jennifer Fox (Laura Dern) is a globe-trotting documentarian. She's engaged to Martin (Common) for the past 3 years and they're both often away for work. She teaches documentary filmmaking at a college. Her mother (Ellen Burstyn) is desperate to contact her after finding her old writing assignment. The memories of a childhood relationship resurface. She slowly investigates the scattered pieces of recollections. During the 70's, Jenny (Isabelle Nélisse) was a shy girl at 13. Her parents were fighting and she felt invisible. She worshipped her horse riding coach Mrs. G (Elizabeth Debicki). Mrs. G and running coach Bill Allens (Jason Ritter) were having an affair. They pulled Jenny into their secret relationship of which Bill took advantage.

This HBO film tells a devastating tale. Laura Dern's performance is a nice growth from denial to realization. It's all on her face like when her student recounts her first sexual experience. Other standouts include Nélisse as the young Jenny and Jason Ritter. Nélisse is perfectly innocent and Ritter uses his personable charms to deviate from the normal creep trope. It's quite horrific. Obviously, this is a personal movie for filmmaker Jennifer Fox. It would have added to the reality of the movie if young Jenny read the assignment writing at the beginning of the movie. Better yet if young Jenny read Jennifer Fox's actual letter. It would be that much more poignant. Overall, this is devastating personal tale with a great performance.

While I was watching this highly effective movie, there was a moment, the moment I have remembered some memory that I burried to the deep side of my mind. It was the time I have realised I was abused when I was child. I think it can show that the power of that amazing movie. Finally, I have faced what I live. And the idea of being your own documentarian, it was one of the best way to show how to examine of our memories or what we tell about them to ourselves to feel better. I will never forget that moment and I will never forget this remarkable movie.

A distressing, disquieting & devastating self-portrait that's right up there with some of the most upsetting films ever made, The Tale is an unflinchingly raw, immensely brave & powerfully affecting account of the director's own past that's brought to life with deft touch & unapologetic honesty, and features an unforgettable performance from Laura Dern.

This is one of the most honest, disturbing yet beautiful explorations of a subject that is all too often over-simplified or dealt with extremely heavy-handily.

The way that the abuse is discussed within the characters frozen in time in the main character's psyche, is profound and unflinchingly honest. The discussions in real-life between mother and daughter - painfully real.

I will be thinking about this film for some time to come, it is an invitation to look much more closely at the stories we tell ourselves, especially with regards to "love".