Review of The Tale (2018) by Aditya M — 09 Aug 2018

Getting serious. So this is about a normal woman named Jennifer (Laura Dern). She may be done with the past, but the past is not done with her, and she has to go back and face her demons from her earlier years for closure: her first sexual experience when she was thirteen.

Now I didn't even know this existed until moments before I started watching it. My wife is starring in a stage play that explores similar themes (How I Learned to Drive), and she wanted to watch this for research.

I couldn't have possibly watched this any colder than I went into this if I tried, so I had no expectations, other than the fact that I like Laura Dern as an actress. I really dug what this HBO movie does, and it may just be one of the darkest movies you will see all year, if not the darkest.

Now I would say I enjoyed this, but it's more of a movie you experience rather than watch for recreation. The thing that you may not know before watching this is that this is autobiographical. If you can do the math, that means that yes, this actually happened to director Jennifer Fox.

I suppose that this is one way of exorcising demons, but it does add an additional layer on what you get out of this, and it completely explains why this feels so damn personal. At every moment in this, you feel uncomfortable, almost like you are reading somebody else's diary, only to find out two pages in that you're reading about a sex crime.

This is a very well made film, and even though you are skeeved out the whole time, it does interesting things with the unreliable narrator device. Memory is faultier than we typically acknowledge, and what I most appreciated about this was how it explores how your brain will lie to you about past events just to help you come to terms with it so you can go on with your life.

For example, you think you are getting some sort of Lolita esque story, only to have the narrator's brain jogged to remember that she was actually even younger. If you are going to take the time to watch this, you should probably prepare yourself to see some of the worst that humanity has to offer.

There are no frills about it, and there are moments a plenty where the actors are looking directly into the camera, telling you what is on their mind in the moment, and you're just going to have to hear them out.

Because of the timeline, this is really only half Laura Dern's movie, but she has a terrific scene towards the end of this, you'll know it when you see it, because you will be floored. If you think you have the stomach for this, by all means this is worth the time.