HBO has released the trailer for their upcoming film The Tale, the Sundance hit that the premium cable network acquired earlier this year. Check it out in the player below!
The Tale follows Jennifer (Dern) as she faces life-altering questions when a short story she wrote for school at age 13 forces her to re-examine her first sexual relationship — and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive. The film is based on award-winning writer-director Jennifer Fox’s (My Reincarnation, Beirut) own true story.
In the film, Dern appears as Jennifer’s onscreen proxy, described as a fearless, 50-ish documentary filmmaker who is interrupted while on location by agitated voicemail messages from her mother (Ellen Burstyn), who sounds really upset after discovering a decades-old story Jennifer wrote at age 13, detailing how her horseback riding instructor (Elizabeth Debicki) and running coach (Jason Ritter) allegedly conspired to deflower her. However, Jennifer’s memory of that “relationship” was apparently a “thing of beauty,” highlighting The Tale’s theme of how memories can embellish and preserve hurtful experiences from our youth. The project offers contradictory perspectives on Fox’s memories and those experiences as Fox sits down with her friend, Martin (Common), to read through the short story she wrote as a 13-year-old, flashing back to those memories as she tries to investigate her own memories of the past.
The Tale also stars Isabelle Nélisse (The Strain), Elizabeth Debicki (The Cloverfield Paradox), Jason Ritter (Another Period), Frances Conroy (American Horror Story), John Heard (Living Among Us), with Common (The Chi) and Ellen Burstyn (House of Cards).
Written and directed by Jennifer Fox, The Tale will premiere on HBO on May 26.
