How does oneconfront a family mystery that everyone seems to know the answer to, but no onecan quite get to the bottom of? If you’re Canadian writer-director Sarah Polley—mostlikely known to American audiences from Doug Liman’s Go, Zack Snyder’s2004 Dawn of the Dead remake, and her own movie, Away from Her,which stars Julie Christie—you turn the camera on yourself and your extendedfamily.
The mystery of StoriesWe Tell centers around Polley’s mother, Diane, and the secrets she carriedwith her until her death in 1990. Diane was by all accounts—including those ofher five children, ex-husband and various friends and co-workers—fun, vivaciousand born to be the center of attention. She was a semi-successful actor inCanada and a casting director, and everyone on camera has tales about herlife-of-the-party demeanor.
There’s also alingering sadness, not just because of Diane’s death, but because of severaltragedies that followed her throughout her life, including a messy end to afirst marriage and an affair that almost wrecked the second. At first, Dianeseems like a reckless individual, but as the documentary marches on and moresecrets are revealed, it seems her pursuit of happiness was driven by an almostprofound existential sadness.
If you’ve watchedSarah Polley’s work as an actor, you can see that in her; her best performanceshave a layer of melancholy just below the surface. One of the traps that Polleyavoids is using this documentary as a sort of I-just-gotta-be-me testament. StoriesWe Tell is, as its title suggests, an exploration into the ways we tellourselves truths, lies and all matters of things in between to cope with ourexistences. The fact that this one family had so much going on beneath thesurface is sort of beside the point.
To give away theenigma at the heart of Stories We Tell wouldn’t necessarily give awaythe thing that drives it—you can guess where it’s going about 10 minutes in—butit’s probably better to let the movie get to you on its own terms as it focusesheavily on three players: Polley herself (mostly off camera, though we oftenhear her voice), her father, Michael Polley, also an actor, and Harry Gulkin, afilm producer.
One of the thingsthat pops up over and over while watching Stories We Tell is the factthat 8mm footage of Diane Polley is plentiful. After a while, it becomesapparent that Sarah Polley has shot a lot of archival footage for thedocumentary, and is using it to push the narrative along and paint a fullerpicture of her mother, father, and various friends and relatives. Does thatmake Stories We Tell more or less real, and the emotions at its coremore or less authentic? It’s a question that Polley raises and doesn’t answer,and your reaction will be tied up in how much you identify with the movie’splayers.
Sarah Polley’sfather, Michael, comes across as so reserved that one wonders whether, attimes, he has a pulse. But then he’ll reveal a stark truth about himself andtake responsibility for his own shortcomings. He also writes and contributes avoiceover that Sarah directs him through as a sort of framing device. It comesup over and over that he had talent as a writer but never did anything withit—maybe Stories We Tell is the vehicle he finally needed.
At its heart, StoriesWe Tell is Sarah Polley’s story, but she’s content to give each member ofher family their say. There’s affection for each of the people on screen nomatter what their version of the tale. It’s too bad we can’t hear Diane’s takeon things in her own words. Some mysteries can’t be solved.
STORIESWE TELL
Written anddirected by Sarah Polley
The Screen
108 min
PG-13
