The Tale, the shocking true story of child abuse that left Sundance speechless – is coming to the small screen
The independent film industry flocks to Sundance Festival, in Utah, each year to showcase their work and spot the next big thing. And it is here, in Park City, where small film's fortunes (and those of their directors) are made – movies including Reservoir Dogs, Little Miss Sunshine and Four Weddings and a Funeral have all become classics after debuting at Sundance.
Each year, there is one film that grabs the headlines and becomes the festival's talking point. This year, however, the most-talked-about film couldn't have been more pertinent, or a more gruelling demonstration of the sexual misconduct scandal that has gripped Hollywood for the past three months and made an international impact. The Tale, starring Laura Dern, is a graphic retelling of one woman's experience of three decades of sexual abuse, which started when she was 13. Four months later, it is coming to Sky Atlantic.
The finished film shocked even hardened Sundance attendees. Jennifer Fox is known as a documentary producer. But with The Tale, she picks up from a class assignment she wrote at 13 – which hinted at the abuse of her 40-something running coach and the woman who enabled him – and transforms it into a time-shifting exploration of her experience of grooming and abuse, both as a child and a grown woman who realises what she was encouraged to think was a consensual love affair was actually child rape.
As Fox said in post-screening interviews at Sundance: "I wanted to tell this story from when I was 13, when I wrote The Tale as fiction and handed it into English class. And it was always in the back of my mind as I was making films, but it wasn't until my forties that I thought, 'Ok, now I'm ready, I have the maturity to do it'."
The subject matter is leading some to dub The Tale as #MeToo: The Movie, after the social media campaign that saw millions of women speak about their experiences of sexual assault and abuse after actresses made allegations of rape and misconduct towards film mogul Harvey Weinstein.
It was a similar experience that inspired a "lightbulb moment" for Fox: she was working on a film about women around the world, which wasn't even about abuse. But, she told Deadline, "every other woman had an abuse story. It didn't matter what class, it didn't matter the culture, it didn't matter the culture.
"And their stories just floored me, because they had a paradigm that looked like my story. Suddenly, I couldn't see it as my own private narrative, and it was like I clicked into a universal female narrative."
Universal it may be, but Fox's unflinching portrayal – she also directed and produced the film – of her experience has proved uncomfortable for Sundance audiences. The Tale depicts rape scenes between Jennifer (Isabelle Nélisse) and her running coach, Bill. According to The Daily Beast, these caused "multiple people [to] walk out".
Measures were put in place to limit exactly what audiences see on screen. Jason Ritter, who plays Bill, worked with an adult body double during the rape scenes. While he said working with a grown woman made the act easier, he still cried while speaking about filming the scenes at the festival. The then-11-year-old Nélisse shot just her dialogue parts. Fox coached Nélisse herself, telling her to "act like you’ve been stung by a bee" in order to convey the feeling of having her virginity stolen by her abuser.
While The Tale is a provocative and challenging watch, it has been winning quiet acclaim and dominating conversation – but only after silencing it, first. The Guardian reported "stony silence" as the credits rolled, but nonetheless described the film as a "landmark". Vanity Fair called it "searing", but admitted it was a near-unreviewable film. Vox decided that Fox's film was "prescient, almost prophetic". This evening, the British viewing public will be able to decide, when it airs on the small screen.
The Tale is on Sky Atlantic at 10pm tonight.