Alexa: “Tale of Tales” garnered a largely positive critical response and its dark fantasy tone seems right up my alley. But for the life of me, I could not get into this movie. It was just not my jam, and I’m not entirely sure why. My only real critique of the film is its pacing. “Tale of Tales” recounts three stories with little crossover, and spends what feels like an eternity on one story before shifting focus again to the point that I often forgot what was happening in the other tales. The acting is solid and the costume and production design are exceptional. It really is a stunning movie to look at. But despite that, I found myself not caring about any of the characters. I didn’t feel any sense of urgency in even the most high-stakes situations. I didn’t have an emotional connection to anyone’s plight, and wasn’t particularly invested in the outcome. For whatever reason this movie just didn’t click for me, so ultimately it was difficult to get through.
Joel: I think this movie was mostly focused on creating a tone and a mood for the viewer, at least more so than focusing on the actual plot of the movie. If that was indeed the goal, the movie accomplished what it set out to do and then some. Visually, this movie takes a big swing and manages to pull it off incredibly well. You could take almost any frame of this movie and result in a still image that gives you a good idea of the feel of the movie. In that sense at least, the movie has a coherent feel throughout it’s runtime. The plot doesn’t really live up to the visuals the movie has, mostly due to the odd pacing choices that it made in telling its story (or stories). That’s not to say this movie is bad or not worth your time. It’s incredibly captivating to watch even if you don’t always feel like it’s progressing the way it should be. In a way, it kind of feels like an art museum. You can tell the work was created by someone exceptionally skilled at the craft, and you know that it has something to say, or it’s evident that it has a greater meaning, but you might need to look at the card beside the painting to get a clue as to exactly what that might be. I do wish that maybe a little more care or effort had gone into adapting the fairy tales, or making the plot of the movie flow a bit more smoothly. It feels like the movie wants to hang its hat on the visuals, and while the visuals are done well enough to hold many hats, it’s pace is a sticking point. It’s a movie that you probably should see but it keeps it from being a movie that you need to see.
Chris: Tale of Tales is three interesting and intriguing stories that unfortunately lack the dialogue to match that level of intrigue. The script felt vague ( i.e. He went missing. Where did he go? The forest. Why? No idea) and resulted in the movie missing the depth that it was clearly going for. There did not seem to be any real pattern of cutting between the three tales and led to a disjointed feeling which can cause the audience to lose the thread of what happened in another tale especially if it hasn’t been revisited in a while. I believe the movie was cut this way for artistic purposes but I think Tale of Tales would have been a more enjoyable experience had each tale be shown in its entirety and then move onto the next tale (obviously, end with Violet’s tale so that the movie keeps the same ending that ties everyone together). The movie wasn’t bad but it wasn’t all that it could have been. A couple more drafts of the script and a different cut of the movie and Tale of Tales could’ve been something special.
Jason: When people think of fairy tales today, most would think of animated Disney happily ever afters. What a lot of people don’t realize is that fairy tales as they were written were dark, scary, and more often than not, tragic! The stories in this movie are adapted from a group of tales collected by Giambattista Basile, a predecessor of the Grimm Brothers. He isn’t as famous but his stories are undoubtedly just as horrific.
As for the film itself, I felt that it did a good job preserving the tragic nature of true fairy tales. While it wasn’t a perfect movie as far as pacing goes, I don’t think it was trying to be perfect. The sometimes minimalistic dialogue had its own charm that I thought added to the feeling of it as an old style story. I absolutely loved the practical effects. They could have easily gone full CGI and made it acceptable but the real deal is just so much more satisfying. The only bit that stuck out as odd was the very end. It left off at such a strange place without any kind of finale. Beside that, I found the whole thing enjoyable and entertaining.
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