'The Tree of Life' Review

The title is a bit of a misnomer, and by that I mean this isn't actually going to be a review of the new Terence Malick film, The Tree of Life, instead it will be more of a critical response. But truer to the point, it is a collection of thoughts and responses to one of the most evocative films I have ever had the pleasure to see. It might not flow, it might not be poetic, but (I think) it gives a pretty accurate representation of this film. It, the film, doesn't exist to entertain, like so many other Hollywood films; it exists to ignite conversation, to spark thought processes, it exists to ask highly philosophic questions in its search for an answer.

How does it all begin? With a spark? With a fire that ignites life? The Tree of Life opens with a shot of what looks like a flickering flame. Light meaning life.

The meaning of life? C'mon, its not brain surgery...

Written and directed by the enigma that is Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life attempts to answer life's most oft asked question: why? A haughty premise. Malick's way of doing this is by examining the ornate relationships between father/mother and son, and between man and god; tracking how they develop through the years as a son grows to become a man and tracking how his (supposed) new experiences shepherd his beliefs. And it is within this idea that I feel the film suffers. There is not enough closure, or really any link, between the protagonist, Jack, as a child and as an adult (played by Sean Penn). Obviously he doesn't find the answer to any of the lofty questions, all of which he asks himself at the beginning, but we are left with no definitive answer to suggest that Jack understood anything. But to be quite honest (and the tiniest bit fair) this film does not have the story structure that we are all used to. No X wants This, Y wants That but they are in conflict so only one person can get what she or he wants. No, you won't find that here. What you will find is a film that searches for answers. However, its just convenient (or random) that Brad Pitt and Sean Penn are in it- by no means is this an A-List movie. In fact they don't need to be, it's almost as if they stick out too much and deter viewers away from what the film wants. Only Brad Pitt, and one of the child actors, has anything that resembles a character. This film wants to exist for itself and for Malick, the fact that this film is seen by anybody is just an irrelevant consequence of its brilliance.

I know it sounds confusing, and maybe a bit boring- people actually fell asleep in the theater- but to understand the grand scope of this film one must first take it for what it is. This isn't an action movie, it is a question, potentially rhetorical, that offers audience members a chance to sit and think for 2+ hours about what it means to be alive. Clearly this isn't your typical Saturday night film, in fact your girlfriend might just dump you after taking her to see this, but for those of us brave (or dedicated) enough to stick it out to the bitter end, well, we can at least brag about being cultured. Even if the entire thing is an existential trip down Jack's memory lane that many won't have half the brain to understand. It's just a fact. It takes a lot of thinking.

This film is not a narrative, its not a story, its more of an avant-garde experience coming from one of our country's premier filmmakers. Its message is told more in symbols than speech, more objects than emotions, and so its interpretation is dependent on how each person sees it. That is the beauty and the folly of the film. There is no one answer to life's many questions, in fact life is different for everyone who lives it. But for a film, well, an audience needs something more tangible, something with a more concrete meaning. There needed to be more of a story linked to its existential premise to give it the weight that it should have carried. The film was great.. but it could have been better and I will believe that until I think about the film more and decide otherwise (always a possibility with me).

The one person who will get the most credit and the most blame for this film is, no surprise, Malick. In my lifetime the man has only made 3 films. 3! There is no way his career is possible unless he is every bit as talented as we are led to believe by a 30 year hiatus and then garnering 7 Oscar noms his first time back. Malick certainly delivers the directing goods here; the tone, the mood, and even the moral of the film can be felt at all times because Malick really hammers at his point. Nearly every single camera angle is slanted upwards, pointed at the heavens- the ultimate goal- and his usage of light really says more about a character than words ever could. What he attempts here is beautiful, trying to show just how interconnected life is (at least thats what I got from it... feel free to offer your own little one-line schtick here) but it never comes does come full circle. There is a scene on a beach at the end where adult Jack (Penn) runs into all of these people, his parents, his dead brother as a 8 year old, and I wasn't quite sure if that was the right way to end it. I didn't follow his progression. I believe that it was Heaven but then we cut back to reality where adult Jack is walking around a city block. For a film that CLEARLY was trying to be abstract to suddenly switch gears and justify itself... I didn't get it. And maybe that is on me and my inability to understand Malick's vision (you'd have to call it that because no other word works), but I don't think it is.

I think that Malick found his 'story' someplace he never thought he would be. It had grown too large and the only way to fix this problem was to keep adding until it made sense.

And maybe THAT is the point.


We add, and add, and add until we have no space. Until it ends. The film, our life. It fades out. There was never any meaning to it; we collect friends, jobs, maybe a spouse, and memories but ultimately nothing comes full circle. We like to try and justify that it does, maybe imagine the things we would like to see the most and prove to ourselves that what happened mattered. That it mattered to someone. But our time is up, the light wanes, and then its done.

Black.