The Tale

The Tale is that rare film that captures its subject matter so effectively that it entirely justifies putting a trigger warning up front. So for the benefit of those who may be sensitive to the subject this film does cover topic of grooming and child sexual abuse. While that might put some off I think it's important to note that it may be the best attempt to cover such material in a long time. In no small part due to the role of the film-maker behind it.

Said film-maker is Jennifer Fox, primarily a documentarian, who a few years ago underwent a reexamination of her childhood after her mother discovered a story she had written as a teenager. The story chronicled a summer she spent at riding camp under the keen tutelage of the glamorous and towering Mrs G. It would soon be revealed to Jennifer that Mrs G was engaged in an affair with Bill, the camp's riding instructor, an affair that they would bring the then thirteen-year-old into.

While much of the film is about romanticizing the past the film, sensibly, never tries to match the rose-tinted view Jennifer previously held towards her abusers. The Tale pulls no punches in the the grim kind of pressure placed on a young girl and the ugliness of her abuse. Event the scenes of Bill's attempts at 'courtship' are tainted with a strong sense of tension as you wait for the penny to drop. It's made clear from the start that Jennifer has tried to romanticize this, viewing Mrs G as a beautiful giant of a woman appropriately played by the 6ft 2in Elizabeth Debicki.

In effect Jennifer has rewritten this incident as an exciting, coming-of-age experience and only now, with the perspective of time can she see the abuse for what it really was. The creeping doubt that slowly consumes Laura Dern's performance as Jennifer is a subtle but powerful thing to watch. So much of her character is admirable; accomplished film-maker, respected educator, self-confident independent woman. And yet we are left to wonder how much of that came from this horrifying period in her life. After confronting both the event and her abusers we find Jennifer left, not broken, but certainly empty.

At it's core The Tale is a film about the unreliability of memory. About how our distorted view of the then influences our now. But does that mean the person we are now is any less real for being based on a falsehood? The answer is no. The forcibly mature 13-year-old Jennifer who sees herself as the hero of her tale is no less real than the shaken forty-something today.

It's the kind of perspective that could only come from having a director so close to the events of the film. Fox takes ownership of what happened even if she cannot bring her abusers to justice. All she can do is tell her story and she has done so powerfully.