Tree of Life Review

The Tree of Life is unlike any film ever made. It's more of an experience than anything resembling of a film. This feels like more of a filmmaker's opus than just any regular film. Like Christopher Nolan's Inception or Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch; it has a lot of heart poured in and it has the feeling of being more distinctive than anything in the director's previous work. However, what Terrance Malik thinks is great can't be judged the same by the audience. While the film has been getting mixed opinions from people, this review will be about as mixed as those opinions. Tree of Life is not amazing in my opinion. In fact; I still don't know what to make of it. Not because I don't understand it but because its very conflicting. On one end, its a visual tour de force with a world created unlike any other movie, but on one end, it's a film that only tests your patience with it's story telling, but it painfully drags out its point and to a point becomes self-indulgent in it's craft. That's why right up front; this will be a mixed opinion. I will give this movie its credit and its faults.

What's the plot? It is centered around a small family in Waco, Texas in the 1950's. It is mostly told in flashbacks from the oldest son Jack(Sean Penn and Hunter McCracken) who as a child goes through traumatic life-changing experiences that leads up to his older self contemplate on his life and its meaning as in the beginning it implies that one of his brothers has died. Then what we see for the next two and half hours are the universe forming and the history of life on planet earth, a family in struggle and of course; religious subtext(at least that's whats implied). Its main theme seems to be in what ways we go through life. As the mother of the family narrates in the beginning that we can either go through by nature or nurture. The film tries to show both sides. Jessica Chastain represents the side of nurture as she deeply loves her children and believes in the notion of love and care will help her children in the new world, while brad Pitt plays the tough, disciplined and ultimate nature side. While Malik wants to show us both of them, ultimately, after a while it is an interesting concept, it is executed poorly. Honestly, this is something that looks and sounds more like a student thesis film than an actual film. It certainly drags its point across too long to a point where you feel beaten over the head by its morals and messages it's trying to cram in. This film could have gone through the route of using just minimalism in its material, yet it varies from using minimalism or flamboyantly explaining whats happening or what the point is. The film is a mess. It doesn't know what it wants to be, it is painfully dull and self-indulgent in its own right and quite frankly; it is too pretentious to be appreciated even as a art film. 

The characters are almost one dimensional. The only ones who seem to bring some sort of life is Jessica Chastain as the caring and sympathetic mother who seems to represent one end of the emotional spectrum. She embodies the innocence of the ignorant mother that its almost painfully hard to watch as she must deal with the her over-bearing husband. Speaking of over-bearing, Brad Pitt gives a phenomenal performance as the hard stern, unapologetic strict father who unintentionally destroys his family with his ethics and morals. He creates a sense of depth that is very hard to pull off by using a minimalistic style of acting that it really impressed me. Pitt is the stand-out in this movie. It's hard to see him as Brad Pitt when you see him teaching his children how to be responsible and being respectful and preparing them for the cold, harsh realities of the world that is fascinates you what he is going to do next. However, the same cannot be said for the main children. Jack who as the eldest of the children is given little to no character at all, that it seems you are just witnessing a child go through maturation and growth. While it's captivating seeing him go through those struggles, it's painfully dull and makes me question whether or not I am supposed to care. Try and imagine if someone with a camera is shooting a documentary about a family growing up and going through the emotional struggles a family would go through, that's basically what the film is in a nutshell. I am not going to attack or fault Terrance Malik as a director cause he is certainly respectable among people, however, I don't feel he took the time to even let his craft breathe to be in true form.

This certainly has elements of a great movie. You can take a mediocre script and put it in the hands of a talented director and he can create an amazing experience for the viewer. However, I feel as though I'm given a moral lesson rather than letting me figure out the morals. I don't mind a director to add his own unique touch to make it more distinctive. There is a beautiful sequence of the universe forming in a montage of just classical music. I really felt as though Malik was taking me into a journey of his mind as the way he saw life and has his characters see life as. It's a bold, uncompromising feat for a director to pull off, yet he masters it quite well. It has it's own symbolism and meaning to the overall point of the film, then afterwards, your expecting what else will the film do, then it goes into autopilot mode and lets us see the family grow and change. Not that it's bad as it is the main central theme of the film, yet, it drags and drags and drags to a point where I'm wondering, "where's the payoff?" And then the ending not only decides to not have a payoff, but it decides to insult it's audience and pull an ending where it's not consistent with it's theme and ultimately becomes a new film for absolutley no reason. It made me question what was I supposed to get from the ending.

However, as much as the film is elongated into a subtle epic with it's grandiose themes, the one reason why I was still was marveled with the film was its gorgeous cinematography. The film was shot by Emmanuel Lubezki(Children of Men) and he creates a opera of images along with a great score that it transports you to a world of forgotten memories and beauty. It felt as though it was a painting come to life and made for every scene interesting in how it would be filmed and photographed. it created a vibrant feel of wonder and amazed that no other film managed to achieve.

Other than that, I cannot imagine going through the film again. I'm not going to rate this movie cause this is one of those movies where its all about the experience rather than the plot or story. That's why I am going to give it a recommendation but caution that it will test your patience. People are divided among this film. Some love and adore it while others flat-out hate it. I just fall into the category of just think it's okay. It's not terrible as it does have a lot of heart and intention for something greater but it is executed badly.