First off, kudos to Jennifer Fox for being courageous enough to tell this story about her own experience being sexually molested as a child, but in a fictionalized version of it. Now, right there and then from that first sentence (plus that trailer), you can probably already tell if this is a movie that you yourself want to watch. If you're still unsure if this is for you, let me go ahead and warn you that while it isn't explicitly graphic visually, this movie does not cut away from the actual act put on young Jenny Fox. You're not going to see anything in detail, but you're uncomfortably going to be witness to more than you'd prefer to see and hear.
Considering the tough subject matter, I have to admit that I was surprised at how this story was not told in a straight forward manner. I was expecting a typical memoir of what happened, but what Jennifer Fox gave us is a much more introspective and very compelling narrative that plays on one of the main themes of this story. Memory. Our memories of our past defines our present life, but our present memories of what happened in the past may not necessarily define it accurately. There are other important themes to tackle here, but it might be better to find out yourself.
The movie did start off a bit slow and mundane in some regards, but once it got it's proper footing in showing us that the narrative isn't as typical as we thought it would be, that's when it just hooks you into this tale, beyond just the sensitive subject matter. I loved how it showed us the different perspectives of what may or may not have happened, the time jumps between present and past, plus moments where the present day Jenny actually has conversations with young Jenny from the past. Fantastic work by Laura Dern and Isabelle Nelisse, whose roles couldn't have been easy to portray here, what with all the specific nuances to their characters.
If you weren't already scared enough of the fact that sexual abuse happens more often than we prefer, "The Tale" should give you some additional perspectives on the topic. It's an incredible piece of emotional film-making that should remind you that this isn't a subject matter to be ignorant about.
Grade : B+
P.S. sorry, but I couldn't use my standard loveditenjoyeditlikedit... rating system for this, because how could I possibly say "I enjoyed" a movie about sexual abuse.
