Sorry, this movie sucks

Admirable film.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

If this would be a book , it would be written by Coelho. Other thing, documentary is so boring. 2h of linger, chewing something that could be much shorter. The story doesn't affect me at all and this is a very good story.The best thing about this documentary is that a guy who is 90 years old has his own teeth and the rest of his family has total prosthesis. Do you people have any dentist there or even more important, oral hygiene?! Jesus...That thing leave the biggest impression on me.

I think the marketing blurb had hyped me up to expect something this wasn't. I'd read of bold playing with form and reality, the nature and recall of memory etc... I enjoyed Away From Her very much too, so was hoping for something unusual here. I can't agree with the other reviews here.I didn't find it particularly courageous or bold in its form, or content matter. Some scenes are recreated, it's as clear as day, not formally bold, and I'm perplexed by the reactions. I didn't come away feeling I'd learned much about the human condition, it was more like going to a friend's house, only, a friend I'd only just met and had no connection with, and having her life story relayed to me. There's nothing shocking in the family timeline, which is fine, but there was no great emotional question I could relate to and wanted answered either. It feels more self-indulgent than the personal insight I was expecting. Not a particularly fascinating life or universal family story. Just one girl's pretty-average story. Not to take away from what the Director feels or demean her life experience, but honestly, it felt precious and narcissistic. I find some aspects of my family history equally as interesting but I know no-one would want to see a film about it.

Actor/director Polley's first documentary Stories We Tell is about her family, and specifically about her mother and her history, leading up to a big question that is answered in the course of the film: who is Sarah's *real* father, and what happened? While some of the magic-tricks that Polley seems to be playing – mixing actual 8mm film footage shot of her family at the time with (albeit very smoothly transitioned) reenactments with actors playing her mother, father, siblings, and the lover who turned out to be her biological father – is a bit tiring near the end, it's ultimately a fantastic story, a wonderful and bittersweet look at the ties that bind, how we delineate truth and fiction, and that love is really what should count. It's power is when it is its simplest – or when we see Polley's father in a recording booth reciting some finely written narration for her daughter (her father, by the way, is a known British actor from Canada, Michael Polley).

This is a curious film. I was eager to see it because I am a Sarah Polley fan. I like her film roles and the movies she makes. However in this one, not really knowing what we were getting into, my wife and I considered turning it off after 10 to 15 minutes. It looked like it would be a rather boring time.But we stuck with it and I am happy that we did. It is a thoroughly interesting examination of Polley's own family, her father, her sisters and brothers, her deceased mother, and herself. There are stories told and the culmination is fascinating.I can't say too much more before the "SPOILERS" section below, for you should see it without knowing too much about it. Because the film covered a period starting before Sarah was born, and while her mother was still alive, actors were used to portray some of the family members for the 1960s to 1990s period. This was combined with some original film which was available.Just a fine film for those who enjoy seeing a nice family mystery unfold.SPOILERS: Sarah is much younger than her siblings and half-siblings, one might wonder if in fact she was a "mistake." As she grew up with her mother gone, she died when Sarah was only 11, the family joke around the table was that Sarah didn't look like her dad, was she really one of his children? Her mom had gotten pregnant during a 6 to 7 week period in 1986 when she was acting in a production out of town. Her husband, Mr Polley, had visited her and they made love passionately, the assumption always was that the pregnancy resulted from that. But now, as an adult, Sarah began digging and talking to her mom's old theater friends and discovered one, now 80, who claimed to have had a love affair with Sarah's mother, and he has been assuming all along that he was really her father, but for family privacy concerns said nothing. Now, with this new information they arranged DNA testing which confirmed the man was her biological father. Some of the interesting development is Mr Polley's reaction to all this and it was fine, in essence he said had the other man NOT been Sarah's real father, she would not exist and he would have missed this loving relationship with this daughter of his. The fact that Sarah is NOT his biological child changes nothing.