Writer: Terrence Malick
Year of Release: 2011
RECOMMENDED
This is it ladies and gentlemen, the moment that a handful of people have been waiting for, The Tree of Life. Really it's almost a miracle that this film didn't come off of the backbone of a 20 year hiatus just as The Thin Red Line did. Seeing as this film is larger in scope that all four of his previous films combined (Which, good Lord, I truly didn't think that was possible). In this film director Terrence Malick covers everything from the infinite to the infinitesimal with utter grace and passion. This is the epitome of a Terrence Malick film, from the opening frames through to the final ones, everything about this film proclaims a perfection of craft for Malick. This feels like the film he's been trying to make throughout his career. It is hard to really comprehend and recant just how graceful this film is. Even when nothing is particularly happening to move the plot forward, the viewer always feels Malick's omnipotent spirituality on every frame. Malick's films have always done a wonderful job of resonating with the audience in a very unique way, but it seems he won't settle for mere resonance anymore, he's aiming for transcendence, to create a true piece of art in every sense of the word. A film that not only poses questions, but for some, may provide answers.
Lovers of narrative beware, because there isn't much of it to be found here. For the most part, The Tree of Life grips the viewer on a more thematic and emotional level in a way that a conventional plot couldn't achieve. I hear a lot of critics referring to echoes of '2001: A Space Odyssey' as an obvious influence, and I would have to agree. However what really differentiates the two is Malick's sense of the spiritual, the passion for and the nostalgia of human experience, and the aching need to understand it and not only accept but transcend it. From the films frequent references to the book of Job (which the two really share quite a bit in common, thematically speaking) to images of dinosaurs grazing on a shore, to cells multiplying, to the relationship and internal struggle between a father and his son, between man and God, there isn't a single forgettable moment in The Tree of Life.
Malick's use of the O'Brien family (in particular Jack's voyage into adulthood) works as a perfect archetype for all human behavior and understanding, it is doubtful that one will find they cannot relate to these people. The father with his wisdom, anger, principles and strict disciplinary actions, and the mother representing a more forgiving, affectionate and benevolent kind of parent. Jack's odyssey and his eventual understanding of his parent's flaws and his angst is a surprisingly broad representation of the human impulse to fight against the universe, to conquer it, to be completely secure and in control of one's own existence.
The film's epilogue (or coda or whatever you'd care to call it) is really the most perplexing and arguably ambitious sequence in the film. It is interesting to note that really, in any other filmmaker's hands the film would have ended with Jack's internal struggle unresolved. However Malick chooses to take one bold step further, with a rather mystifying sequence which will leave room for many audience interpretations, although it's place and intention is clear: To help us make peace with our own demons. If that isn't the true essence of art, then what is?
Overall rating: 10.0
Status: HOLY BALLS
Side note: Alexandre Desplat's score is so achingly beautiful.
-The same should be noted of Emmanuel Lubezki's cinematography.
