Review of A Hidden Life (2019) by Compi24 — 01 May 2020

Christopher Plummer once famously recounted of his time with Terrence Malick on the set of "The New World," "the problem with Terry, which I soon found out, is that he needs a writer. Desperately.

" It certainly has been a minute since we've seen Malick go the semi-traditional narrative route. Narratively experimental films like "The Tree Of Life," "Knight Of Cups" & "Song To Song" have confounded and frustrated both critics and normies alike.

With "A Hidden Life," though, Malick seemingly gets back to the basics. One protagonist, one conflict, one point. Is it beautiful to look at? You bet. Is it well performed? Incredibly so. Are there things to cut? The cup runneth over.

Oh, sweet God, does the cup runneth over. I'm not one to undermine the thematic potential in flux here. This is a tremendously powerful and admirable story of conviction and doing what feels right, despite what the world tells you.

There are fascinating musings on God, duty and the folly of man all throughout. Typical Malick stuff. It's just that there's also so much filler here that could've been left on the cutting room floor.

Establishing shots. Scenes of characters farming and performing menial tasks. Even entire arcs featuring ancillary characters could have been left to the wayside. And I get it. This is the Malick way, baby.

It's how he's been doing things forever. But when we start talking about hours (literal HOURS) to trim off your runtime? C'mon, man. This is a frustrating watch to be sure, for there's so much that really does work.

Yet all I can do is hear those words from Christopher Plummer echoing in my head into infinity.