2013 Movie Awards- The "I Just Don't Get It Award"

My first year-end movie award goes to the praise that Stories We Tell has been receiving from critics I follow. It's the second consecutive film by Sarah Polley that left me cold. Polley's last film Take This Waltz was about a marriage falling apart and a woman finding a spark from outside her marriage. I thought Michelle Williams' performance was pretty ridiculous, and there was no drama to me as to why the marriage was failing, especially given that her husband (played by Seth Rogen) was doing things like dumping cold water over her head each morning while she showered. There was no indication that there was ever a spark, so the film just didn't work for me.

In Stories We Tell, Polley portrays her own family's drama. It should be a very fascinating story, as Polley interviews family to find out the identity of her birth father. However, I felt nothing but distanced from the story, as certain decisions Polley made almost made it feel like Polley was making this film strictly for her family. She has a family member read the narration for the film live, and to me it would have been more fascinating to get more of her reaction about all this, as to me she feels more like a bystander.