THE TALE (Laura Dern)

shame this got relegated to television

I think HBO is perfect for something like this, it's not an "audience" film and not one you'll be quick to recommend to friends........

Saw it last night. I found the film itself really clunky and uncomfortable. I hadn't read about or seen the trailer or anything so I went in blind only knowing that it's very personal to the filmmaker. And you gotta admire Jennifer Fox for braving her own past abuse to tell her story. A lot of it I found effective: how Dern (playing Jennifer Fox) puts her documentary on hold for a personal digression that turns into this bigger endeavor and an aching realization of her own concealed trauma. There's the layered meta angle - a story about a storyteller, deciphering and investigating a story she once wrote. There's the tricky "discussion" of the elusive nature of memory - how Dern's memories are often mixed and coded. But what this is really about is Fox reckoning with and determining what role she will accept in her own tragedy. And this culminates in the quite tense ending scene. Still.......Fox in her narrative debut kinda jumbles a lot of these ideas together and there are various heavy handed or awkward stylistic decisions (voiceovers, flashbacks, breaking the fourth wall, etc) that undercut the film more than serve it. Dialogue is often on the nose. And the visuals (one of the cinematographers shot Monsieur Hire !!) are really flat and add nothing. Dern is good, better in the later scenes. Debicki mvp though: she balances alluring confidence and a subtle ominous quality really well.

It's difficult to "review" a movie like this; is it worth seeing? It depends. In some cases I imagine its "flaws" won't matter bc someone might be so affected by it. Someone else might see it as too repugnant and turn it off.

Trivia note: De Palma has a Special Thanks credit. He brought the script, which he found incredibly brave and important, to Laura Dern and convinced her to take the lead role.