Mike's World

View Original

The Tale

Movie 🎥 Review: “The Tale”. Critics gave it a 98% the users an 86%.  Rater R for it's extreme sensitive content around underage sexual encounters.

Jennifer has it all, with a loving boyfriend and a great career as a journalist and professor. But when her mother discovers a story - "The Tale" - that Jennifer wrote when she was 13, detailing a special relationship Jennifer had with two adult coaches, Jennifer returns to the Carolina horse farm where the events transpired to try to reconcile her version of events with the truth.

This is a true story produced, screenplay and directed by Jennifer Fox.  Jennifer Fox (Laura Dern) faces a host of life-altering questions after a short story from her middle school days forces her to re-examine her first sexual relationship and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive.

With her unforgettable haunting of the nature of her childhood memory, The Tale is the first narrative feature from Sundance Grand Prize Winner and Emmy nominated writer-director Jennifer Fox, whose documentary films have earned international acclaim for their groundbreaking artistry and unflinching honesty. Based on Fox’s own life story, "The Tale" sees the filmmaker bravely pushing forward the boundaries of conventional storytelling, creating a dialogue between past and present to illustrate the interplay between memory and trauma.

"The Tale" stars Laura Dern (Oscar nominee for Wild and Rambling Rose; Emmy winner for HBO’s Big Little Lies; Emmy® nominee for HBO’s Enlightened, Recount and Afterburn), Isabelle Nélisse (Mama), Elizabeth Debicki (The Night Manager), Jason Ritter (Kevin (Probably) Saves the World), Frances Conroy (Emmy nominee for HBO’s Six Feet Under) and John Heard (Emmy nominee for HBO’s The Sopranos), with Common (Oscar winner for Selma) and Ellen Burstyn (Academy Award winner for Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore).

I came across this movie as I was surfing HBO channels and upon reading the description decided to DVR for a time when Mercy and I could watch together.  Little did we know what we were about to see was without a doubt the most shocking movie I think we've ever watched together.

Keep in mind this is about an adults memory of her first sexual encounter at the age of 13.  So you're now thinking this is a perverted movie at the very least.  Let me warn you, if you decide to watch this you'll be subjected to some VERY uncomfortable scenes.

Its a powerful movie that is devastatingly raw and a powerful movie that demands attention.  You will find yourselves hanging on EVERY WORD spoken throughout the film.

Warning this movie is not for everyone, however after watching you will come to realize the amount of devastation this can have on the child her family and her adult life after going through this unfortunate situation.