Le Passé Recomposé

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source: The Tale

I notice that writer/director Jennifer Fox had no previous experience with making a narrative film, she had only worked on documentaries, and unfortunately it shows. This is a very messy and sloppy film that is basically relying on raw emotion to carry it through. Fox's own experiences are what the film is based on and that is actually quite a rare thing, someone telling their own true story. It should be the formula for a really good film, but you still need to structure your film well. This one is all over the place and that only serves to take away from what could have been a very powerful film. There's some pretty heavy and tough to watch material in this film. They went a lot further with it than I thought they would. I have to commend them for that because I think a lot of films would've danced around the subject and played it very safe. 'The Tale' certainly can't be accused of that. Laura Dern gives a reasonable performance. The script didn't actually give her as much material to work with as it could've. A lot of the heavy lifting was actually left to child-actor Isabelle Nélisse. She does her best but will never be able to have the same power and emotion that an adult can provide. 'The Tale' was a really interesting concept for a movie that just wasn't executed well enough.

I've been meaning to watch this movie for quite a while. I've watched the trailer and read the sinopses. Watching it I wished I went into it without knowing what it was about just because I feel it would be even a more compelling experience. This movie will make you feel uncomfortable, disgusted, heartbroken, dizzy... And that's why I believe it is such a good one. There will be moments in which you'll find yourself looking away. It's an horrible story seen through the eyes of a woman who is forced to face the truth about something in her past that she managed to hide from herself, as a defense mechanism. It really makes you wonder how many times you and the people around you sugarcoat things, because the reality is just to awful to accept. Both the leading actresses were amazing, the adult Jenny, shocked, in denial, angry, heartbroken and 13 year old Jenny, confused, broken, innocent, trying to cope with something no child should have to. It's shocking and brutal. It will leave you feeling sick to your stomach, and it will be completely worth the watch.

While I was watching this highly effective movie, there was a moment, the moment I have remembered some memory that I burried to the deep side of my mind. It was the time I have realised I was abused when I was child. I think it can show that the power of that amazing movie. Finally, I have faced what I live. And the idea of being your own documentarian, it was one of the best way to show how to examine of our memories or what we tell about them to ourselves to feel better. I will never forget that moment and I will never forget this remarkable movie.

Kudos to the way the story is told by director Jennifer Fox, and for telling her very personal story in the first place. The level of denial, sublimation, and discovery decades later is honest and illuminating. The conversations Laura Dern has in her mind with people from the past (including her 13 year old self, Isabelle Nélisse) as she sifts through the fog and memories of her abuse, are brilliant. Dern's performance is decent but not outstanding, but Ellen Burstyn's is strong, as is that of Nélisse. There were a few moments in the story that seemed a little odd, but no one can deny its fundamental truth to far too many. I have to say though, it's very tough to watch in several places. I'm certain Fox's intention was to be completely honest, but to be this explicit, and in what can be misinterpreted as a sympathetic overtone, is unpleasant to sit through. The extent of the negative impact of predatory child rape isn't fully felt, though Dern's scene confronting her abuser late in the movie is powerful. I like how Fox signaled the cyclical nature of the crime ('what happened to you?'), and I loved the inclusion of her own childhood pictures at the end, which brings goosebumps. A heartbreaking, important film, but just brace yourself before watching it.