Marval Movie

Once there was a time when people would try to make great movies. There was a time when writers, directors and producers would try to shake the audience and even redefine what a movie could be. Now with the seemingly near death of celluloid film it seems that those days are a memory. Terrence Malick is here with the Tree of Life one of the most spiritual, provocative, deep movies I have ever seen, a movie that doesn't detach itself from the small human issues or from the big cosmic scale of the universe, here it is all one package.

This is only Terrence Malick's fifth film since he made his debut with Badlands in 1973. All his films have a unique grace, they are more like poems than constructed like traditional three act movies. Here Malick uses a 1950's suburban family living in Waco Texas to explain the meaning of life. What filmmaker alive today would dare try to explain the meaning of life, and if there is anyone who would dare, could they do it justice or would they just get lost in their own pretentiousness? Tree of Life may not explain the actual meaning of life but I did feel enlightened and shaken to my core both while watching it and days after.

Sean Penn plays Jack O'Brien, he is middle aged, a successful architect living in the big city. He is unfocused and still in mourning for his younger brother who died at the age of nineteen. There is a tree being planted in front of the building, this sends Jack back into his youth as a young boy.

The movie says that there are two ways through life the way of nature and the way of grace and we have to chose which one we follow. Nature and Grace are represented by Jack's parents, his father (Brad Pitt) represents Nature, as in the animal instinct to get ahead and survive and demands discipline and respect. The mother (Jessica Chastain) is grace who exudes love and caring and appreciation for life in all it's forms, is born grateful and dies satisfied.

While we are being taken back to Jack as a young boy we see literally the birth of the universe, we see planets that experience first light, clouds of matter flouting through space, a universe born through fire. Then we are taken to the birth of planet Earth where we see tiny single celled organisms emerge the shaping of the forests and and dinosaurs (yes there are dinosaurs in this movie) walk around and feel something for the first time. Then we see a young couple (Mr. and Mrs. O'Brien) fall in love then have a child and then teach the child its first steps. Could this be an example of the theory the we are all just minor examples of the the universe itself, this is only one of the many interpretations that someone could takeaway from this scene.

Brad Pitt gives one of the greatest performances of his career as Mr O'Brien (we never learn his first name, he insists on being called sir). Pitt shows great maturity as this harsh man who is angry with his life. He wanted to be a great musician but it didn't happen and he's stuck as an inventor who cant sell his ideas. Colin Ferrell and Mel Gibson were considered for the role but Pitt hits that mysterious perfect note that allows us to perfectly buy him as this man and completely forget about the heartthrob superstar he really is. Pitt has my vote for Best Supporting Actor for the Academy Awards.

Jack Fisk who has worked on all of Terrence Malicks movies as either art director or Production designer. His credits include, Badlands, Mulholland Drive and There will be Blood. He always has a sense of atmosphere and the Holmes have an organic lived in feel and he gets all the little details right for the time and place with the tin cups that the characters drink out of.

By the climax of the movie I was weeping, not because a great happiness or tragedy happened, because I became overwhelmed by the movies grace and beauty. I don't think I can articulate my feelings into words but it was something that has never happened to me in the time I've been watching movies.

Malick likes to cut from one scene to a short clip of the scenery - flowers, waterfall, open window. He strikes me as the kind of man who goes for walks in his spare time or while theirs no filming going on with a camera and finds these beautiful angles of light and nature and films it. The cuts in the film may not necessarily have any symbolic purpose. I think Malick is using the Japanese technique of "pillow shots" where a scene is shown and then cuts to something else as a form of punctuation, or perhaps he feels a need to show these wonderfully beautiful shots that hes gathered and I'm glad he does.

The movie moves in the way of memories, we are in Jacks memories so we see things how he remembers them. There's a scene where one of his friends drowns in a pool and there isn't much buildup or exposition as there wouldn't be if we would remember it.

There are a lot of movies that come out and they are spineless poor excuses for any form of art, they rely on standard recycled formula, no one has any guts to really dare to try and redefine what a movie can be. Terrence Malick has never been a conventional filmmaker and he is one of the last who have any soul and can get a movie made. This is a great movie that should be held as a beacon to light the way for other movies to follow.

Rating 4 stars out of 4