Review: ‘Stories We Tell’

I’ve been a huge fan of Sarah Polley’s ever since I first saw her luminous presence in Atom Egoyan’s films of the late 1990s. Since then she has become a writer and director to be reckoned with and this touching, personal documentary shows her growth and maturity as a filmmaker.

The subject of this documentary is Sarah’s mother, the sometimes-actress Diane Polley. Diane died of cancer when Sarah, the youngest of a brood of siblings, was just eleven. Through interviews with her father and siblings, family friends and fellow actors, Polley assembles a portrait of her mother.

Her father also reads from a poignant memoir he wrote about the marriage, and is a surprisingly good sport when it comes to taking direction from his daughter.

As Polley deeper into her subject, revelations come to light that would knock another filmmaker for a loop and possibly even discourage them from completing the project. But she doesn’t abandon her film, and the result is a fascinating portrait of a capricious woman.

More importantly though, it is a treatise on the subjectivity of memory. While this is a very personal film, the actress never takes centre stage. The film is firmly about Diane and the role she plays in the memories and narratives of other people’s lives. And just how different these stories are is startling. Never before has the fallibility of memory been so ably evoked on screen.

8.5/10

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(Warning: trailer contains spoilers)