Jennifer Fox 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. An accomplished documentarian working in New York, Jennifer is completing her latest project, about the lives of women around the world. She receives a series of phone calls from her mother, Nettie, who has found a short story Jennifer wrote at the age of 13 for school... (Full plot summary below)
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Jennifer Fox 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. An accomplished documentarian working in New York, Jennifer is completing her latest project, about the lives of women around the world. She receives a series of phone calls from her mother, Nettie, who has found a short story Jennifer wrote at the age of 13 for school. In it, she describes various encounters with her riding instructor Mrs. G and her running coach Bill while away at summer camp. Nettie is unnerved by the implications of her daughter's writing, but Jennifer is nonplussed. She has always looked back with fondness on the time she spent with the two charismatic adults. Egged on by Nettie and encouraged by her supportive fiancé, Jennifer yearns to know more and sets out on a journey to find the real people 30 years later - the children, now adults, who also attended the camp back then-and eventually the coaches themselves. But the more she learns, the more her memories shift and the more questions she unearths. As her frustration mounts, she finds herself turning inward to get to the truth, imagining conversations with her 13-year-old-self and even Mrs. G and Bill in an effort to understand how and why events occurred so long ago.
Leave your thoughts about The Tale.
| SlashfilmEthan AndertonDirector Jennifer Fox is one of those women, and she tells her brave and heartrending true story in The Tale by using memory and documentary influences as narrative elements that play with the medium in ways that bolster this harrowing recollection. |
| HeyUGuysLinda MarricThis is a timely and important film, told with honesty and dedication to examining the anguish and anger such terrible events leave in their wake. |
| GuardianJordan HoffmanI want more people to see The Tale because it’s such an innovative, honest and important film. It is a landmark, and Laura Dern is absolutely extraordinary. But I know for certain I’ll never watch it again. |
| The ListEmma SimmondsDern is breathtaking as she grits her teeth and faces her fears, while Fox's courage and skill are hard to overstate. |
| AwardsCircuit.comChristopher JamesThe Tale deeply understands and conveys the emotional cartwheels the mind does to victims as they reframe their narrative. |
| Refinery29Anne CohenThe film feels like [Jennifer Fox is] taking us on a journey of self-exploration without a foregone conclusion, which makes the end result both satisfying and not satisfying, much like real life. |
| USA TodayKelly LawlerFox and Dern hope The Tale will empower more people to not only share their own experiences with sexual abuse, but speak up when they witness it happening to others. |
| Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperWhat a remarkable performance by Laura Dern. It’s a beautifully nuanced portrayal of a smart, accomplished, independent woman who finds the courage and strength to confront the past — and to understand that the demons poking at her subconscious all this time were not of her own making. |
| VarietyCaroline FramkeFox’s directing and script are so purposeful and direct that it can be very hard to watch The Tale without having to look away. |
| Village VoiceLara ZarumThe Tale is a powerful and clear-eyed examination of sexual abuse and the shifting sands of one’s own memories. |
