Release Date – 7/8/2011
The Tree of life is only the fifth full feature from visionary, and somewhat reclusive filmmaker Terrence Malick. In five decades of making movies, Malick has only actually made five movies. Hard to believe. The Tree of Life is his latest and its his most ambitious film at that. Topped-off with all of the usual Malickian concepts, which usually involve heavy doses of his characters set adrift amongst the chaos of the Universe as they seek the meaning of it all with wide-eyed astonishment. It has beautifully erratic visuals, fractured story segments and poetic voiceovers. Sure, it’s filled with its fair share of eccentricities, but not enough to weigh down its effectiveness. From the very beginning, The Tree of Life wrestles with the heavy-hitting prospects of surviving and suffering on a Biblical scale. It’s a film that benefits from Malick’s curator-like direction that transports you emotionally, ideologically and visually.
The story begins when Mr. and Mrs. O’Brien (Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain), a 1950′s suburban couple living in Waco, Texas – which just so happens to be the town in which Terrence Malick was born. They are informed of the death of their middle child. Although the nature of his death is never alluded to, this is the point during the film in which we are first introduced to the fragility of life. Their eldest son Jack (Hunter McKracken) witnesses his parents’ grief with extreme mystification. Decades later, Jack has grown up into a successful architect and is now portrayed by Sean Penn, whose total screen time barely approaches 10 minutes. From here, we are then thrust into what I can only describe as Malick’s own rendition of the beginning of the Universe. We bear witness to the creation of the cosmos through the prism that is Terrence Malick. We see the primordial seas, volcanoes erupting and yes…even a couple roaming dinosaurs which are no doubt a mirror image of Stanley Kubrick’s savage apes in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The Tree of life is many things. What is not, is a plot-driven narrative. Malick always removes excess plot. He does the same here and by doing so, he creates a masterfully sweeping visual poem. The film begins strongly enough as we clearly see the dichotomy between mother and father. Both played remarkably by Jessica Chastain and Brad Pitt. More importantly, we are able to recognize and distinguish between the two characters. The mother is extremely gentile and very spiritual. She is the way of grace. The father is strict and stern. He is the way of nature. At times, the father can be overbearing but never to the point of becoming cruel or abusive. When the father speaks, we understand and acknowledge that his viewpoints come from personal experience and human frustration, not from cold-hearted evil. There’s no doubt in my mind that Brad Pitt recognizes these very concepts and he plays the part perfectly. He continues to display his abilities as a great actor and further demonstrates that he’s one of the best.
Jessica Chastain, through here whispering narration of poetic dialogue, plays the part of a gentile and spiritual mother very well. As a parent who lost her son, she’s forced to be mopey and sullen through much of the film but deserves kudos for doing it so well. Sean Penn’s character, however briefly seen, is a man trying deeply to reconcile his feelings about his aggressive and domineering father. The profession his character, I can only assume, suggests his tireless need to put pieces together. To construct an understandable and working knowledge of the world around him. Aside from Pitt’s bruiting fatherly portrait, the other performance deserving recognition belongs to Hunter McKracken, who, if there truly is one, solidifies himself as the main character around which the film revolves…sort of….but not really.
Most of the film is spent in flashback where we experience the coming of age of the O’Brien boys, namely, Jack. With the camera at eye level, the sequences with the three O’Brien boys rough-housing with one another and playing with the other neighborhood kids made me feel like a kid again. Like I was there with them running in the streets, kicking rocks, throwing sticks and rolling around in the tall grass. Though, growing up is not all fun and games. It’s hard finding your own way. “The world lives by trickery”, Jack’s father tells him. Eventually Jack begins to resent his father for his tough upbringing. Through his growing anger toward his father, Jack begins to act out and at one point, even begs God to kill his father in a haunting voiceover. This father/son relationship is without a doubt, a juxtapositional comparison to the ultimate father figure – God.
You have to give credit when credit is due. Terrence Malick creates perhaps one of the most highly experimental and non-commercial films ever crafted. Yet, he manages to cast two of Hollywood’s biggest names. Told in Malick’s very own style, The Tree of Life is fully equipped with fleeting conversations and short bursts of memories. The man deserves admiration. The cinematography is the stuff of legend. Brilliantly captured by cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (Children of Men), The Tree of Life is presented as if you were watching an unending parade of visuals.
The film’s closing sequence is a curious one at that. It includes Terrence Malick’s concise vision of Earth’s demise. Accompanied by unexplained shots of the film’s characters wandering aimlessly across a sun-soaked beach, as if they were lost souls. The meaning and interpretation of the film’s ending will be entirely up to you. It is what you make of it. Which might in fact be the very message Terrence Malick intended to convey. Life is what you make it. Take away from it what you will. Like when Mr. O’Brien tells is son the meaning of the word “subjectivity”. It perhaps encapsulates Malick’s message to the audience. Make of this what you will. Or don’t. A few things are for sure as you watch this film: Life is hard. Things come and they go. Boys will be boys. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh. But life goes on. And there are no easy answers.
The Tree of Life is illusory and romantic. It is both beautifully oblique and grand in design, but is anything but Utopian. Many will throw their hands up in the air in befuddlement and argue that Malick’s reach exceeds his grasp. They will argue that The Tree of Life never really develops into a fully conceptual film and that it is overly obscure and too impressionistic. I beg to differ. It is not an enigmatic puzzle begging to be solved. Like life itself, the film leaves us with as many unanswered questions as lingering doubts. The film does what it intends and tells you all you need to know.
It’s very difficult to explain, with any degree of certainty, what this film is really about. After all, it explores concepts that no one truly knows anything about: the roots of humanity, the birth of the Universe and it’s inevitable demise, and of course, our relationship with God – if there even is one. If you are adventurous enough to see this film, I implore you to do so with an open mind. It’s a movie unlike anything you have ever seen and most likely ever will see. The Tree of Life, like it’s close relative 2001: A Space Odyssey, will require multiple viewings in order to even begin to comprehend all of its meanings. Go into it expecting an unconventional film by an equally unconventional filmmaker and perhaps you will be as effected as I was. A film which took Terrence Malick over 40 years to make, may take another 40 years for us to completely understand. Or perhaps it was never intended for us to fully understand at all.
To steal a quote from the ending of American Beauty:
“I had always heard your entire life flashes in front of your eyes the second before you die. First of all, that one second isn’t a second at all. It stretches on forever, like an ocean of time. For me, it was lying on my back at Boy Scout camp, watching falling stars. And yellow leaves from the maple tree that lined our street. Or my grandmother’s hands and they way her skin felt like paper. And the first time I saw my cousin Tony’s brand new firebird. And Janie…and Janie….and Carolyn. I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me. But it’s hard to stay mad when there’s so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I’m seeing it all at once, and it’s too much. My heart fills up like a balloon that’s about to burst. And then I remember to relax and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can’t feel anything but gratitude for every little moment of my stupid little life. You probably have no idea what I’m talking about, I’m sure. But don’t worry…you will someday.”
But I no matter how much I liked this film, I just can’t stamp it MADE because in all honesty, I’m not really sure what I saw.
IMDb: 8.0/10
Rottentomatoes: 86%
MovieWiseguys: 7.5/10