[Now for a bust of a movie so critically acclaimed, you might even be tempted to watch it for yourself. Just don't say I didn't warn you.]
The Tree of Life (2011) is an American existential narrative film written and directed by Terrence Malick, starring Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, and Jessica Chastain.
In the end, middle-aged grown-up eldest son, Sean Penn, of religiously observant parents, Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain, experiences a dream-like, shore-line encounter with the people he knew as a child, one of whom, his younger brother, died aged nineteen.
Scenes depicting the creation of the universe, the formation of the stars and planets, and the emergence and development of life on Earth, are inter-cut with those of a young Christian couple struggling to stay together while raising three sons, confused and frightened by the abuse their loving and compassionate mother, Chastain, suffers at the hands of domineering and disillusioned father, Pitt, in what appears to them to be an arbitrarily cruel world.
This movie is crammed full of symbolism, some of which even I needed Wikipedia's help spotting!
Partly raised and currently resident in Texas (where they like to do things differently) Terrence Malick has spent a career making movies that are more art than entertainment, loved by the critics and loathed by practically everyone else. That he is held in such high regard by those either in the film industry or engaged in reporting on it, probably says more about their desire to demonstrate sophistication and erudition, than it does about Malick's work.
Don't be fooled by the Malick's courtiers, though. The best that can be said for this, and his other movies, is that they look good on the big screen, because he does have an eye for a pretty picture. Or rather, in this case, the people who he got to do his potted histories of creation and evolution special effects have.
When left to his own devices, Malick's tendency is to use unusual camera angles, wide-angle lenses and uncomfortably extreme close-ups to fill the screen with actors or objects he finds interesting. Whether you find them interesting probably depends on whether you enjoy watching other peoples' home-movies, which is exactly what this film feels like, albeit one with Hollywood stars and production values.
What Malick does manage to achieve, though, with a combination of image and sound, is a sense of what it feels like to be alive. Whether you need a film maker to tell you what it feels like to be alive, is another matter.
Wikipedia describe this film as an "experimental drama". I'm not sure whether that's because they don't know what a drama is, or can't spell existential or are just being polite? Whatever, if you approach this movie hoping to be entertained, be prepared for disappointment. Unless, that is, your idea of being entertained is a two hour, twenty minute tour of an art gallery filled with someone else's holiday snaps.
*[The spoiler alert refers to the Hans Christian Andersen tale of The Emperor's New Clothes. You can decide for yourself, if you really want to, but, for me, the Emperor is definitely starkers ;)]
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tree_of_Life_(film)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor's_New_Clothes
