Nothing about this film in any way constitutes it being a "thriller", and the title is a complete lie; there's nothing fairy tale-ish or fable-y about it at all. it's a plain, straight-forward drama about a little farm girl who discovers some rich big city man being held prisoner in her father's grain silo or something. We quickly learn this is part of a poorly thought out plan to ransom him for money because Ronald Reagan is evil and wrecking the economy so everyone's losing their farms. all throughout the film, the girl's older brother is almost mentally deranged in how needlessly belligerent and violent he is towards her, culminating in an inexplicable sequence near the end where he literally tries to stalk and murder her with a rifle, and ends up killing a random neighbor woman who came to check up on them.

I feel like the rating for this movie should be much higher than it is, considering how original and interesting the plot was. Sure there were fantasy elements, and things that made you question reality, but it didn't take away from the film as a whole. I enjoyed this movie from beginning to end. Peyton Kennedy blew me away and made me want to see her in just about anything else. Children really are such natural actors. She is the main reason people should see this film and enjoy it more than they may have otherwise. I really liked the way the script played with good & evil, similarly to what Christopher Nolan likes to do. I would watch this again, and certainly watch more like this.

American Fable is set in the mid west of Reagan's 1980s America where some farmers were financially hard hit, heading for bankruptcy with their land being bought up by investors.Gitty (Peyton Kennedy) is an eleven year old girl living with her dad Abe (Kip Pardue) who is struggling farmer, mother Sarah (Marci Miller) who is pregnant and older brother Martin (Gavin MacIntosh) who is hostile, bully and a borderline psycho, just see the way he nearly chopped her hand off.Gitty lives a care free rural life, she may not have many friends but she has a pet chicken and her own fantasy world. One day in an out of bounds silo in the far reaches of their family farm, Gitty finds a businessman Jonathan (Richard Schiff) being held captive. Gitty feeds him, brings him books to read. He tells her stories and even teaches her to play chess. Obviously Richard is befriending her so she can help him escape but he appears to be genuine enough.It seems her dad, mum and brother are in league with a mysterious woman called Vera, who wants the farmers to fight back against these rich developers. Gitty is in a dilemma whether to free Jonathan and put her family at risk of arrest.The film wants to be a fable, you have various tales being told, a fantasy sequence but it is not wholly coherent. The film reaches an urgency at the climax but you really are left thinking as to how this crazy brother has not yet been institutionalised.The film benefits from wonderful photography even the night scenes are well utilised but the film is under-cooked.

An 11-year-old girl named Gitty enjoys the 1980's farm life while living with her pregnant mother, Sarah; evil brother, Martin; and doting father, Abe. A young Gitty discovers a businessman named Jonathan hidden in an abandoned grain silo located on the vast property that is her family's farm. Gitty befriends Jonathan and begins bringing him food and literature at his request with a promise that when he escapes the silo, he would give her anything she wanted. Gitty asks Jonathan to tell her a story, and he tells her the story of the lion and the mouse. Later on, Gitty asks her father if he has heard the story of the lion and the mouse. Abe says he knows the story, but then he ends up reciting the story to her with an incorrect, sinister ending. Abe's version of the story has the mouse setting the lion free, but then the lion harming the mouse anyway after it is set free. I thought this was a foreshadow to the man in the silo being set free by Gitty in the future and then harming Gitty anyway. We learn that Abe was about to lose the family farm and has made some sort of plan with an evil woman named Vera. Abe has agreed to hold the man for ransom, but when evil Martin finds out that Gitty has been speaking to the man in the silo, the game now changes because the man may later be able to identify them with the police. The family panics at the thought of going to prison, so they decide Jonathan must be killed so they will not get caught. Just then, Gitty's mom goes into labor and she and Abe leave for the hospital. Gitty sees her chance to save her friend from a horrible fate. She calls the town's bumbling sheriff, but the sheriff ends up being no help at all and ends up being shot by Martin. A chase ensues, and the Martin now threatens to kill Gitty but ends up falling into a shallow, dried-up well during his pursuit of his sister. Jonathan finally breaks free, only to find Abe has come home from the hospital to kill him. Gitty jumps in front of Jonathan, and an injured Jonathan scampers away. Later, we see a still 11-year-old Gitty fending for herself and eating roadkill to survive, as I assume, her parents are now in prison. As she is preparing her roadkill meat for consumption, we see a fancy car pull up and a clean, and well-suited Jonathan step out. Then the movie ends. Because of Abe's incorrect recital of the Lion and the Mouse, I am left wondering whether Jonathan was there to harm her or if he was there to grant her the wishes he promised to fulfill when he was still captive in the silo. I am not sure if this was supposed to be a cliffhanger, or if the ending was accidentally unclear.All in all, it was a very slow and gentle "thriller." I liked it, but I just with the ending had been more clear.