The first question I had after viewing this film; how could she forget these events from 1973? Then I realize, this is the entire point of the film, that children faced with traumatic events can misremember events as a means for survival. The film excels at demonstrating this. That said, I have some issues with the current portions of the film, and some of the casting.
I'll come right out and say it, Laura Dern looks absolutely nothing like the 13 year-old Jenny. I'm old enough to remember Laura Dern in films in the early 80s. Dern is tall with a somewhat long, angular face, where as Isabella Nelisse is quite short and small even for a 13-year old. She has a round face with huge doe-like eyes. Frankly their energy as actors is just very different to me. Some may consider this petty, but its an issue for me. Maggie Gyllenhaal would have been a better casting choice.
I don't really understand casting Common as her modern Jenny's partner. He's considerably younger than Dern. It just doesn't ring true with me.
Finally, I'm having a hard time with the timing of events here. So Jennifer Fox was born in 1959, this means she would have been 48 in 2007. Yet, everything looks contemporary, i.e., the student's clothing style, the presence of modern smart phones.
Ultimately, the flash back portions of The Tale are what carry the film, the modern day portions could have been much more efective, both in casting and in script writing. The film gives us the notion that everything was screwed up in the 1970s, and in 2018, we are in some sort of politically correct age of enlightenment. I can't agree with this. Contemporary Hollywood is obsessed with political correctness, and it shows here.
I'll come right out and say it, Laura Dern looks absolutely nothing like the 13 year-old Jenny. I'm old enough to remember Laura Dern in films in the early 80s. Dern is tall with a somewhat long, angular face, where as Isabella Nelisse is quite short and small even for a 13-year old. She has a round face with huge doe-like eyes. Frankly their energy as actors is just very different to me. Some may consider this petty, but its an issue for me. Maggie Gyllenhaal would have been a better casting choice.
I don't really understand casting Common as her modern Jenny's partner. He's considerably younger than Dern. It just doesn't ring true with me.
Finally, I'm having a hard time with the timing of events here. So Jennifer Fox was born in 1959, this means she would have been 48 in 2007. Yet, everything looks contemporary, i.e., the student's clothing style, the presence of modern smart phones.
Ultimately, the flash back portions of The Tale are what carry the film, the modern day portions could have been much more efective, both in casting and in script writing. The film gives us the notion that everything was screwed up in the 1970s, and in 2018, we are in some sort of politically correct age of enlightenment. I can't agree with this. Contemporary Hollywood is obsessed with political correctness, and it shows here.