Review of Stories We Tell (2012) by Jason S — 12 Dec 2013

It's often said the simplest stories are often the most compelling when told the right way, and Stories We Tell is likely one of the most extraordinary films about family, love, choices and memories you'll see. Polley delicately unspools the tapestry of her mothers life through the stories from the friends and family who knew her, capturing the revelatory emotions and reactions without any hint of sensationalism, often through captured home video footage.

It's perhaps too matter-of-fact at times, but the real treat is Polley's ability to seamlessly segue between the real and the fictional in her what she shows on screen interspersed with the memories being shared here. Her distorting of memory and fact is so subtle and presented so absorbingly that her ability to manipulate her own personal work and still tell the story she wants becomes even more intriguing as the film progresses.

The result is a work of pure genius; deftly adhering to her own families uncertainty of Polley sharing her personal family story in this way, while still maintaining some of that mystery, as well as perhaps inadvertently making a statement on an audience's' willingness to take documentary form at face value.

It would be easy to criticise Polley's cold unravelling of the facts here, and that she uses her own family drama as a foil for a grander discussion on the morality of choices, memories, truth and lies. But we all have stories to tell, and everyone comes away with a alternative perspective, which is what makes Stories We Tell such a fascinating journey from start to finish.