The Tree of Life (****)
Directed by: Terence Malick
Starring: Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain, Hunter McCracken
Seen: August 12th 2011
****
Out of ****
“There are two ways through life, the way of nature and the way of
grace, you have to choose which one you’ll follow.”
So says Mrs. O’Brien (Chastain) in The Tree of Life, Terence Malick’s
incessantly ambitious film addressing life, the universe and everything.
Covering religion, family, growing up, envy, love, loss, and everything in
between, The Tree of Life is certainly one of the larger scale versions of a
small story I have ever had the honour of seeing, and one person will need
multiple viewings to take it all in, to get all there is to get from it. Having
some knowledge around philosophy and its ruminations around life and the
origins of the universe will definitely help.
The Tree of Life starts with a bible quote, Job 38:4,7: “Where were
you when I laid the foundations of the Earth, when the morning stars sang
together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”, and as the words fade
Thomas Wilfred’s “Opus 161” graces the screen, an oddly wavering light pattern.
Then you’re taken to the 60’s, introducing you to Mr. (Pitt) and Mrs. O’Brien,
learning of the death of their son, aged 19, bringing their world crashing down
into quiet grief. In modern day America, Jack O’Brien (Penn) is a man of few
words, and as he tells his father how much he misses his brother, his
recollections and thoughts start rolling, pulling the viewer into a visually
astounding staging of the formation of the universe and the origin of life
(Darwin might be proud), before returning to memories of his own childhood.
Here Jack is shown as the oldest of three brothers, from the births of the two
younger brothers with Jack’s initial reactions for attention as the babies
demand it through to the brothers as young teenagers and Jack (McCracken)
bearing the brunt of his father’s very strict love for his sons. Jack has much
to deal with and many viewers will recognise something in his imperfect love
for his parents and his trials growing up from their own lives.
The 50’s are beautifully recreated, and among scenes featuring
municipal trucks spraying the streets with DDT director Malick surprises with
the amount of meaning he conveys in single shots. Take for instance Jack
finding his father working on the car: with one turn of a character’s head the
viewer sees more than can ever be conveyed with words, even though nothing
happens at that moment. Such small moments are everywhere in this movie as long
as the viewer stays tuned in, but returns to the older Jack and cosmic
parlances can be jarring removals from the story. Sean Penn is given precious
little opportunity to really become a quiet character stumbling through an
emotional wasteland; and lengthy breakaways to visually enticing evolution and
creation scenes are beautiful but far removed from the story (VFX Supervisor
Mike Fink describes these scenes as: “not narratively connected, but
thematically complementary pieces”).
Brad Pitt is excellent as the controlling but loving father to the
beautiful and gentle Jessica Chastain’s mother, and while they both do
extremely well in their roles, one an experienced thespian, the other a
relative newcomer/unknown (not for long), it is the young hunter McCracken that
owns this movie in his portrayal as Jack, a young man with much to learn about
himself and the world, the central figure of the movie.
The Tree of Life is not for everyone, and will alienate some viewers
in its long dalliances into what for most will be nothing more than obscure
philosophical ramblings. Afterthought and further reading into related subject
matter does however increasingly inflate the movie’s stature, and now, four
days later, I think more of the movie than I did walking out of the cinema.
Terence Malick has made a beautiful film that will probably not find as wide an
audience as he hopes, but those who work at it will find the worth, and the
themes of this movie will stay with me for quite some time.
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