The Tale

I expected something like Sleepers or Spotlight: where adult survivors of child abuse confront their assailants. Writer-director Jennifer Fox's style is bold filmmaking; utilizing documentary framing, voiceover, and editing to recall atmospheric memory. But it doesn't become a movie as it stays too close to the messy source. Namely, Jenny is too off-putting to be a hero. And I was constantly annoyed at the dialogue's terrible grammar. Still, marginal recommendation as it starts conversation.

I finally watched this after having it suggested for the past three years. I didn't want to watch a depressing after school special in my free time, but I decided to take a chance--mostly just due to Oren Moverman's involvement. Perhaps I wrote it off too quickly and easily. Nope. It's uncomfortable, redundant, and predictable. I don't want to trivialize the lady's story, but it doesn't make for an entertaining two hours. Watching kids in sex scenes is always repulsive, no matter the angle.

Whoa. The storytelling in this movie – combined, of course, with the story itself – is incredibly effective. The switching back and forth between timelines, the unreliable storyteller and the constant corrections to her own memories, the fictional interactions and interviews with other characters... all of it adds to the power and poignancy of the story, and all of it contributes to the emotional gut-punch that this movie is. My only minus would be the uneven and distracting color correction

A heartbreaking look at sexual abuse and unreliable memories with another insane Dern performance. Doesn’t deserve to be relegated to TV movie status.

Unexpected, unpleasant and unlike anything else. A unique exploration of trauma and the way that our imperfect memory leads us to (mis)construct the story of our lives.

damn... this is way more vulnerable than I've ever been with my therapist

It's a powerful story and an interesting perspective on the subject of child abuse. I found it really interesting how it explored ideas of how we remember our childhood and how they're not necessarily true memories. It reminded me a lot of Mysterious Skin (2004). Laura Dern was excellent, of course. I enjoyed the story structure, even if I wasn't always wowed by the direction. Certainly worth a watch.

A deeply personal and honest take on how a child suppresses the trauma of abuse and years later remembers it piece by piece. Walks on thin ice. Tough watch. Structurally terrific. Cinematically not that much.

A powerful, challenging, and thought-provoking meditation on sexual assault, difficult to watch but excellently told.

Hm...not terrible. Decent, actually, but flawed. Ms. Fox is not a great writer, but luckily a much better director, though I had the feeling she sometimes went in for overly-interesting stylistic affectations to attempt to make up for the weaknesses in her writing. The female characters are fairly well fleshed-out (Ellen Burstyn even plays the accordion!) while the males are two-dimensional at best...Jason Ritter seems bewildered as to how to deliver many of his lines. Laura Dern is excellent.

Slow but powerful film.

rvw. i loved the directing like time traveling to memories, remembering herself older and things differently, memories changing as she read about it etc. it kept slowly uncovering well. talking to her creepy younger self who held back the eventual catharsis. the disgust was powerful and raw. but the end was kinda lame like all of a sudden she thought she was a victim and hes like it was YOU and they do a quick flashback montage. but he acts like it really was some lolita shit

Do you remember that Luca Guadagnino's flick everyone raved about? There must be a principal difference between the pairs 25-17 and 35-13, which is surprisingly hard to put a finger on. Some might judge by the criterion of secondary sex characteristics, but many girls do already get their boobs near the age of 11. Some might try other approaches. Some inept directors or screenwriters just won't give two shits when they film on the extremely promising theme of kiddie-fucking.

Tremendously hard to watch, as one can gather from the subject matter. But also very well made.

I had high hopes for this, but to me it was boring and repetitive. More like an After School Special.

Intriguing examination of the role of the unreliability of memory, and the imperfect mental gymnastics that young children want (or need) to do in order to move past exploitative trauma and how this can resonate on for a lifetime. A little too dry and didactic at times to be a successful drama, but a cast of heavy hitters (notably Dern and Burstyn) bring a weight and gravitas to proceedings. Excellent cameo by the late, great Heard in the final scene.

I found it—although necessary—too long but it is an interesting story for how the events unfold.

harika

the starting point was fine. even in this case, the abusing period has been bravely shown. but it could have been more shocking if it could get rid of this hidden judgmental stuff. sometimes i felt like it's an exploitation movie. all the trauma things hadn't enough to increase the artistic value of the film. you should use better metaphors to get the film up to artistic level, just like Polanski's Repulsion. yes, this is important but not as art. valuable because of it's real based story.

One of the bravest and most sincere films I've ever seen. There's so much here about childhood trauma, cycles of abuse, exploitation, and growing into your identity, but also about the scars of memory and the psychological circus always at work in the mind. These elements are breathtakingly realized through Fox's direction, which weaves two timelines, multiple perspectives, and a metanarrative tilt into one incredible, cohesive story about her own life. Smart and personal in equal measure.

A chilling and unpleasant trip down memory lane that asks which convictions you use to cope with trauma. An incredible work of art that's probably the most important movie of the year. Laura Dern is amazing and Elizabeth Debicki is unnervingly sinister. NOT A NICE MOVIE FOR FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!! But a very good and important one.

Impeccably acted, remarkably made, so hard to watch.

Dern playing this role a little differently than I expected (not just emoting extensively all over) was welcome. It's hard to criticize the story itself since Fox is telling her own story so directly instead of using her experience as just a framework to work on, but it wasn't told as well as it could have been. The choice to add the documentary aspects made it feel hokey at times. There are still great, powerful scenes within, but it did create a disconnect. But it is incredibly honest.

An interesting way to frame the story, and I like the dismantling of the narratives we tell ourselves to avoid trauma. If you read the plot summary, then you shouldn't be surprised that this a tough watch. I realize it's acting, but I don't think I could ever accept the role of "chid molester", especially when it goes as far as it does in this film.

7?????????????/??????????

A beautiful and revealing story about a woman revisiting her past to reframe her teenage memories of an affair with an adult man. Despite some repetition and frequent timeline splitting, the story is revealed subtlely and with care. Another exceptional performance from Laura Dern. The final few scenes showed she had gotten past her childish viewpoint and gained an adult perspective about what had happened to her. Worth watching but at times a bit uncomfortable.

1656

rahatsiz edici bir konu. yasadigi travmanin üzerine bastirma savunma mekanizmasini kullanarak kurulan bir hayatin dagilisini gostermis. gercek bir hikaye akisindan cok bilincaltinin cozumlenisine gore hikayeyi kurgulamis. bu da biraz egitici bir ise kacmis. travma sahnelerindeki atmosfer ve gerceklik gereksiz geldi.

Not my kind of movie, but it was interesting watching Laura Dern rationalize it all away.