Gee Film Reviews

3rd June 2011

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Tree of Life - Film Review

Grade: C

“Ambitious” is the primary word that describes Terrence Mallick’s film The Tree of Life. But like the film itself, that facet of ambition can be misconstrued as a work of genius or the result of an artistically pompous director.  Obscurity is pushed to the limit as Mallick crafts an exploration of life that will undoubtedly create a split audience. One can interpret it as a perplexing work that pushes the boundaries of filmmaking, and the other might find Mallick’s direction as a debauched attempt of artistry.

The sixth film from the personally eccentric Terrence Malick, Tree Of Life abandons any sense of the traditional narrative.  Instead, the film is a vision of breathtaking visual poetry that intertwines breathtaking cinematography of creationism with a non-focused comparison to human life. The latter, a character study,  is the aspect of the film that only vaguely resembles archetypal filmmaking. In this portion that dominants the director’s vision, the film depicts the life of a Texan Suburban family living in the 1950s. The film externally takes place in the point of view of the oldest of three sons, Jack O’Brien (Hunter McCracken). The character study transitions back and forth from Jack’s present life (the older Jack played by Sean Penn), and his upbringing as a harshly disciplined child.  Brad Pitt, who remains unnamed, commendably plays Jack’s hard-charging discipliner who hides his vulnerability and broken dreams with his sternness. The point of the story presents one of the film’s core aspects, the contrast between two ways of human life, the way of nature (connection by struggle) and the way of grace (connection by love, the universe). Pitt character is obviously the embodiment of nature, while relative unknown actress Jessica Chastain, gives a touch of subtlety to oppose Pitt’s forces. This universal life struggle is depicted through the emotion distraught faced by Jack’s character, and the single point of view gives an insight on the result of these clashing forces. 

While the portion of human life Mallick portrays is wonderfully crafted and intriguing, the other half that dominates the film is where Mallick might lose its audience mentally.  The Tree Of Life, in general, is the comparison of complexities between human life and creationism, which according to the film, is essentially the same. The creationism portion consists of cinematic images of the creation of the cosmos and nature itself. The lucid images Mallick creates are remarkable, from splitting of cells to the creation of the cosmos, the director attempts to push the boundaries in expressing his vision of the metaphysical world. But this is where it gets complicated: there is almost an entire hour dedicated to these images.  What first seems profound, becomes messy and tiresome.  This energetic cinematography, in the case of my watching, eventually seemed indistinguishable and ending up resembling an endless  reel of “Windows” screensavers.  Many have said that they receive a sort of transcendental feeling only Ralph Waldo Emerson could describe,  but only the patient will get a reward. These abstract images may give you an insight in inner emotion, and may even transcend you to the metaphysical world, but on the exterior, the visual portion are too pretentious for the film as a whole.

Overall, there is no distinct purpose of The Tree of Life, the insurmountable amount of subjectivity that will be expressed towards the movie will be undoubtedly present. Mallick, once again, is ambitious creating a film solely through the means of imagery.  While the character study of the film is indisputably thoughtful, the relation between creationism gives the film the great potential to be a mixed-bag.  The result is a film that is messy, and ultimately unrewarding. It can give off a feeling of self-indulgence on Mallick’s part, but essentially, it’s a subjective experience. The Tree of Life is a unique film, but the reward in watching it is entirely in the hands of the audience. I, unfortunately, could not get past the film’s concentration of exterior nothingness. Grade: C

Tagged: Tree of LifeFilm Review