THE TREE OF LIFE

Right up front I want to be honest and admit that I may not be intelligent enough to do this film justice, so I apologize if my account of the film barely touches the surface of what “The Tree Of Life” is all about.

Terrence Malick is an amazing director, he is incredibly intelligent and makes films like no other.  He is also not very prolific, in the four decades he has been making films, “The Tree Of Life” is only his fifth film.  However they are all of such incredibly high quality that, amongst cinephiles, it is always an event when a new Malick film is released.  My own relationship with the films of Terrence Malick are as follows, I adore both “Badlands” and “The Thin Red Line”, but I am embarrassed to say I found “The New World” (as beautiful as it was) a bore (and I only watched the shorter theatrical cut).  Amazingly I still have not gotten around to seeing “Days Of Heaven” yet, but I will be rectifying that very soon, as in a couple of months time, The Astor cinema is doing a season dedicated to Malick where they will be screening all of his film in 35mm.  Anyway, due to the way I reacted to his previous film, “The New World”, and what I had read about “The Tree Of Life” beforehand, I was actually a little scared that this film was going to be a two hour and fifteen minute borefest.  The fact that the film had been polarizing audiences wherever it played (including Cannes, where it premiered) certainly didn’t help my fears, but this was Malick, and I was always going to see the film, so what was my reaction?

First , the story.  There are three distinct parts to “The Tree Of Life”, but the heart of the film takes place in the 1950’s in Waco, Texas, where we follow the O’Brien family which consists of three boys and their parents.  Right at the start of the film, we are witness to the news that the middle boy, R. L, has died (we never find out how).  Upon hearing the news, we see Mrs. O’Brien (Jessica Chastain) and Mr. O’Brien (Brad Pitt) break down and via voice-over narration we hear Mrs. O’Brien questioning God, asking Him where He was when her son died.

This question sets in motion the now infamous “creation” sequence.  For the next twenty minutes we are witness to the creation of the world, and eventually of the life that inhabits it.  From the first signs of life (a jellyfish) to the dinosaurs, to the ice-age that made them extinct, all the way through evolution, until it ends in the birth of Jack (the oldest O’Brien boy) who symbolizes the birth of all humanity.  Immediately after this we see a few brief glimpses of Jack as an adult (played by Sean Penn), which are set in the present.  The reason for this, is to indicate to the audience that what we are about to see, the small flashes in the lives of the O’Brien family, are actually memories from the adult Jack.  It is the anniversary of his brother’s death and he is still struggling with his passing, as well as his troubled relationship with his father.

This brings me to the final part of the film which doesn’t belong in reality rather it is more of a visual representation of the spiritual catharsis that Jack goes through to be at peace with himself and to set him on the path of grace, which is something he is searching for throughout the film.  It would be wise of me to mention at this point that “The Tree Of Life” does not follow a normal narrative structure.  We are fed little bits and pieces of Jack’s life very quickly and then it moves onto the next piece.  You have to remember that the film is full of Jack’s memories, fantasies and dreams.

The film opens with a quote from the Book Of Job, and he is mentioned again in a sermon later in the film, where the point is made that from the beginning of time, bad things can happen to good people.  You cannot outrun your fate rather your life is determined by how you deal with these obstacles.  The other point labored on is the fact that people have to choose between two paths in life, they can either follow the path of grace or the path of nature.  Each of the parents represents one of the paths with Jack’s mother portraying “grace” and his father, “nature”.  While there is religion present in the film, I would never call this a religious film, it is a spiritual one.

And it is beautiful!  I have just re-read what I have written so far, and it depresses me that my flat writing style so far hasn’t expressed just how beautiful a film “The Tree Of Life” is.  I’m not just talking visually (although it is stunning to look at), but rather all the emotions present within.  For me this was an amazingly emotional journey for me, in fact, I was surprised at just how much I was feeling during the watching of this film.

From the above paragraph it is obvious to see that I loved this film, but I will try and talk about it a little more in depth.  The highlight of the film is the Waco, Texas scenes, which are the main body of the film.  Malick successfully recreates what it is like to be a child in this section.  Little things like playing with your friends, wondering the streets, even just throwing a stick, it all feels so real.  He even captures moments like when Jack first starts to become aware of his awakened sexuality, but probably the most important thing that Malick does, is he doesn’t shy away from showing that being a child is not always fun, in fact it can be downright painful.  The boy, Hunter McCracken, who plays Jack, is outstanding and he does not put a foot wrong throughout the entire film.  The way he deals with his relationship with his father is amazing to watch because it is so complex.  His father is a hard man, and treats him harshly, but only in an attempt to get the best out of Jack.  Jack is forever frustrated by this and we see him struggle at times with loving and hating his father, and there is even a point in the film where he contemplates killing his dad (which mirrors an earlier scene involving the dinosaurs during the “creation” segment).  When he does not perform the deed, he then begins to pray to God asking Him to take away his father.  Even though Jack adores his mum and would love to be more like her, he is troubled by the fact that he is more alike to his father in terms of his behavior.

It really is obvious just how much Jack (and Malick himself) adores his mother because she is portrayed in the film to have an almost angel-like quality to her, and the way she is filmed throughout the film is always stunningly gorgeous.  Whenever she is onscreen, the film just lights up.  Jessica Chastain plays Mrs. O’Brien and boy, is she something special.  I could not take my eyes off of her and although she has little to do dialogue-wise, the amount she expresses just through her eyes is amazing.  I adored every moment she was on-screen (with most of the memorable images of the film involving her).  Mr. O’Brien is played by Brad Pitt and this is one of the best performances that I have ever seen from him, he just disappears into the role of this tough father.  He is not always an easy character to love, but he is never a bad man.  He is tough and treats his boys roughly, but he wants nothing but the best for his boys, and perhaps more importantly he wants to make sure that they do not make the same mistakes in life that he made.  Near the end of the Waco segment there is actually a very sad moment when Mr. O’Brien realizes just what he has (in regards to his family) and how much he has missed out on while focusing on his work.  It is during this scene that Jack and his dad have a small but important moment which I found quite touching.

Again I want to point out just how great the Waco, Texas scenes are.  They are perfection.  Everyone is perfectly cast, it is all superbly acted and importantly the truth of those scenes always came through (and need to, for the film to work).  Amazingly though, these are not edited in the normal Malick fashion.  Normally we get these long, languid shots of long grass blowing in the breeze with a hand passing through it, or sunlight pouring through the branches of trees, etc, and while these images still exist in “The Tree Of Life”, they are edited here in a rapid way (representing Jack’s mind as he remembers things), but it is no less effective.

It’s time to talk about the other two parts of the film.  I will admit that I was most worried about the “creation” sequence, however I was absolutely mesmerized throughout the whole thing.  This, however, was definitely not the case with everyone at the screening I attended.  It was during this sequence that we had the most walkouts and you could just feel that a lot of people were uncomfortable throughout this scene, people were restless and making a lot of noise and some were beginning to get vocal (“I don’t know how much more of this I can take”).  As I mentioned though, I found it to be exhilarating and extremely bold cinema.  The effects shots in this sequence were all amazing and the time flew by.  I have read a lot of negative comments about the CGI of the dinosaurs, but I just didn’t see it, they looked fine to me.  Now whether or not the sequence works in conjunction with the rest of the film is interesting and probably up to the individual viewer, but personally I liked it and found it affecting.  This is probably because it ends with the birth of Jack (thus tying it in to the rest of the film, not just with its themes), but I could see a lot of people having a problem as to whether or not there was any relation at all to the rest of the film.

The same problems could arise with the final sequences with Sean Penn, but as opposed to the “creation” sequence, it is definitely anchored in what has come before it.  If I was pressed to find a negative in “The Tree Of Life”, I would have to say that it is in this segment.  Again, it is gorgeous to look at, and although I like the sequence, I do not feel it is strong as the rest of the film.  I think the main problem is that Jack’s motivations as an adult are never fully explained or expanded on.  Although we know it is the anniversary of his brother’s death and it appears as though he is having a crisis of spirituality, we never really know why Jack is like this or for how long.  Is this just brought on by the timing of the anniversary or has he always been like this?  I must admit, that these questions although valid, don’t really mean that much to me.  We understand that he is trying to change the path that he is on towards grace, and what we see is the visual journey.  However from listening to other people’s reactions after the screening, a lot wished for more explanation in the finale.  Another problem in this section is that I think that Sean Penn has been miscast as the adult Jack. 

Due to the fact that Terrence Malick is a recluse, very little is known about the man.  He is such a mystery because he never does promotions for his films, he never does interviews, it is even rare to find a photograph of the man.  He would rather let his films talk for themselves, but it has come to light that a lot of “The Tree Of Life” is auto-biographical.  He lived in Waco as a boy, his brother died in 1968 (sadly of a suicide, which gives credence to the theory that R.L died the same way) and he apparently had a rough relationship with his own father.  Although I have nothing concrete to back this up, from the way that she is portrayed in the film, it is safe to assume that he adored his mother too.  Obviously this makes “The Tree Of Life” and incredibly personal project and is probably the reason it has taken so long to reach cinema screens (it was originally meant to screen at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, but Malick still wasn’t finished tinkering with it).  Interestingly, cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki has revealed that Malick is currently working on putting together a version of “The Tree Of Life” that will run close to six hours long.  Whoa!  Now that will be interesting.

Speaking of Lubezki, I cannot fail to mention his outstanding work in the creation of Malick’s imagery.  I’ve always loved his work, but since he has worked with Malick (he lensed “The New World” previous), Lubezki’s style has changed.  He used to create very flashy and theatrical lighting, but now relies more on very natural lighting.  His work is still stunningly gorgeous though.  There are some images in “The Tree Of Life” that will never leave my mind: Jessica Chastain floating next to a tree, Jack’s “birth” via a flooded house, a wave breaking which is shot from underneath the wave, and there is a scene when Mrs. O’Brien pushes a see-through curtain on R.L’s face that is simply beautiful.  There are many, many more (oh, the mother in the glass coffin shot), but I couldn’t possibly name them all.

Finally, I must talk about the score.  You may have noticed that I rarely talk about the music from the films I review, and truthfully I am not really sure why that is, however the work done here by Alexandre Desplat just has to be mentioned.  It is simply outstanding.  As the majority of the film has very little dialogue, the music is massively important in helping drive the story and make us feel certain emotions (but not in an overly manipulative way).  To say he succeeds in his task is a massive understatement.  Right from the get-go, the music just swept me up and carried my along this amazing journey.

Overall I was amazed by this stunning film.  While it is definitely not an easy film, I found it to be a hugely rewarding experience.  It was one of the most emotional times I’ve ever had in a cinema.  As I’ve stated earlier, though, this film does polarize viewers, but to me it was almost perfection.  Amazingly before this film was even released, Terrence Malick had already finished filming his next film, which is being tentatively called “The Burial” (only by the media as people close to the film say that this is definitely not the title).  He once again worked with Emmanuel Lubezki as his cinematographer on the project, and Lubezki has stated that the new film is even more experimental than “The Tree Of Life”.  The new one stars Ben Affleck and Rachel McAdams and should be released next year.  Not only that, but apparently Malick has told his crew that he also wants to shoot another film before the end of the year.  This is amazing, we could get three new Terrence Malick films in consecutive years.  I cannot wait, but until then, lets enjoy and celebrate the magnificence that is Malick’s fifth film, “The Tree Of Life”.  It has been my favourite cinema experience of the year so far.

4 ½ Stars.