The Tale (2018)

recommended

Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

A Brilliant Conflict

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

I feel grateful that the director had the courage needed to share this tale with us. I felt emotionally richer for the experience and couldn't rate it any less then 10 as it was so authentic and valuable in that regard. Difficult to watch but not a tear jerker at all, just completely honest.Yet again, I was shocked to read about the way in which they tricked Isabelle Nélisse to participate in it, and I strongly ethically oppose child actors being manipulated in such ways. She was amazing though, and I hope she will be able to look at it someday and feel proud about the final product of her being objectified the way she was. Kind of ironic and bitter, considering the movie partially deals with the topic of consent.

I had high hopes for this, considering the actors involved and the fact that it was produced by HBO. But I couldn't believe how badly made it was.This should have been an emotionally wrenching story of a woman coming to grips with the fact that she was repeatedly raped as a child by an adult she trusted. Instead, it plays more like an ABC After School Special. None of the characters have any depth or layers. I felt as if I were watching a rehearsal for the finished film. One of the problems is in the writing. Scenes just seem to exist for the purpose of conveying information, but no one seems invested. Viewers should be terrified and repulsed by Jason Ritter's character, but I found him to be dull and predictable. Even Ellen Burstyn appears to be picking up a paycheck and nothing else. Only John Heard, in the film's only honest moment at the end, comes off as real. I cared about what was going through his mind. All the other scenes were like those bad industrial films they showed you in high school.The director (and writer), Jennifer Fox, has no point of view. And that's the main problem. Had a more competent director and writer helmed this project, I may have felt what these characters were supposed to feel - completely drained at the end. Instead, I felt like an important story was given the Cliffs Notes version.

This is a masterpiece. Jennifer Fox is a genius. Writing and directing? Amazing. And, apparently, she actually wrote the story at age 13 that this movie is based on. Wow. The directing is so subtle, the mixture of past and present, the interaction of the characters, the woman and her mother. Stellar performances by all. P.S. The subject matter, sexual abuse of a minor, is not everyone's cup of tea. If you're offended by it, or don't think it's important enough to have its own movie, don't watch "The Tale." I wasn't familiar with it until I became a therapist, but now I know it occurs and is a devastating and life-altering experience. This movie handles it fantastically. But if you don't want to see a film about it, don't watch this movie. Jennifer Fox, you are brilliant. Please keep going. Have you got another one of these for us?

I have seen some reviews in which they completely destroy this film (they don't get it and probably will never will). It is a good work and must have been a painful one for the director. I am glad that she made it though. Seeing how her opinion of these two abusers evolves throughout the movies must be what most victims of child sexual abuse go through. In some cases must people blocks those memories, in her case she distort them to think that she was been loved....It is a sad world when a kid cannot be just a kid, because there are predators out there ready to pounce on them.