I made similar complaints at the most recent Transformers movie, although a different kind of patience is needed for that. They are fair concerns and not at all indicative of poor taste Many viewers will feel too much patience is required and not enough clarity provided for this to be an enjoyable time. The other reason recognition is likely to elude the film is because, typical for Malick, the public's reaction was divided. There are two obvious reasons for that, one being that the film was released in May (having missed its previous planned 20 release dates), half a year before the real contenders emerge for the memory-challenged voters. It will, however, take an unusually weak crop of dramas released in the next two months for Tree of Life to claim the anywhere from five to ten slots this year's reconfigured nomination process will produce. Critics have hailed Tree of Life as beautiful and moving, making it one of just a few films before the usual year-end Oscar season to elicit any talk of a Best Picture nomination. Those specifics add distinct flavor and intrigue (as well as a touch of Malick autobiography), but they could be changed without much effect on the transcendent experience.ĭone right, this departure from convention is just the thing to excite those who watch movies professionally. Tree of Life is sort of like that, but the fascinating world is our own and one you can appreciate with no prior predilection for a Christian Texas upbringing in the middle of last century. Who says cinema can't be that? Certain IMAX films delight with nothing more than large-format photography taking you inside a fascinating world. And yet, the film is magnetic and entrancing, less a narrative and more of an experience. If someone was to ask you for a plot synopsis, you would be at a loss. One of the sons' deaths hangs over everything, but the circumstances and victim remain vague (one presumes it's Vietnam-related, but a freeze frame apparently and insignificantly reveals otherwise). Nothing is spelled out in that finale or in much of the movie. Penn adds clout and another layer of depth to the proceedings and he features prominently in the evocative ending. The other is that Sean Penn, claiming second pre-title billing, has very little screentime and hardly any onscreen dialogue, as the grown-up version of the most focal son Jack. That is one of the more unexpected aspects of Tree of Life. There are dinosaurs in this Terrence Malick film. He doesn't even limit himself to mankind, turning our attentions to cell fusion, the cosmos, and, from our planet's distant past, dinosaurs and their extinction. Malick's film aims to provide tastes of the whole human experience and he strings episodes together without much concern for chronology or linearity. We mostly get the boys' point of view as they engage in typical childhood activities during the day, then have to button up and be more than respectful at the dinner table.ĭad has his reasons for being tough on the kids he gave up his classical music dreams to be an ordinary factory worker. In this case, much of the all refers to an average family of five consisting of a strict father (Brad Pitt), an affectionate mother (Jessica Chastain), and three young sons (Hunter McCracken, Laramie Eppler, Tye Sheridan).
Understatement is in high supply, as Malick opts to tell nothing and show all. The bulk of the film takes place in 1950s Texas, though that information barely becomes clear. If the previous two, 1998's Best Picture Academy Award nominee The Thin Red Line and 2005's forgettable The New World, could be easily described as poems, then this one feels more like a concerto grosso, one which really does make a sincere effort to tie together life, the universe, and everything in a way that the number 42 fell short.
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Tree of Life is only what most would call Malick's third movie in modern times.
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Fortunately, this is written and directed by the reclusive Terrence Malick,Ī filmmaker as artistic and ambitious as any today and whose handful of spread-out credits all reflect full devotion to their subject.
After all, the phrase refers to the interconnectedness of all existence, an enormous topic for feature-length treatment.
Since The Tree of Life is neither a nature documentary nor a science fiction film about an actual tree, its title raises some large expectations.
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