Review of The Tree of Life (2011) by Dylan K — 07 Nov 2015

There comes a point, when innovation and beauty can turn inwards, becoming self indulgent and an eye sore, although The Tree Of Life has some jaw dropping moments throughout its run time, its pretentious nature constantly shines through, tainting the entire experience.

The story follows the O'Brien family, a tough and very rooted in tradition household, in which abusive behavior, love and heartache continually play a big part in every day life. We essentially grow with the family as they have their ups and downs, in what could best be described as some form of dreamscape.

I'd love to tell you there is more to it than this and Terrence Malick, the director, would love you to believe there is, however, as gripping as the central story does turn out to be, there really isn't a whole lot going on here, in terms of plot.

Firstly this is a visually stunning movie, I'm not just saying that, its utterly gorgeous, shot using a naturalistic and over the shoulder style, the film feels like you are a fly on the wall, in the middle of the O'Brien's lives.

The camera slides and glides, back and forth, to create a sense of flow and motion, making everything you watch immersive and utterly unique. The attention to detail, not only in production design but also in the frame is beyond impressive, lending thousands of gorgeous flowing shots, edited within an inch of their life, this film really feels like your life flashing before your eyes, in the best possible way.

Actors mutter and whisper monologues over stunning visuals of volcanoes erupting, solar systems and creatures of the deep, performances from Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain and all the children are astounding, this may be Pitt's best role for years.

All of these things come together to make a visual and emotional masterpiece that is unlike anything you will have seen before. The Tree Of Life however, wants to alienate you as much as possible and although I can forgive the extremely over bloated and art wank 30 minute beginning, I cannot forgive a lazy, self indulgent ending.

The film has such a strong core, so much emotion and build towards what feels like it should be a powerful climax, only when Malick eventually gets around to wrapping the film up, he decides to ditch any form of solid story finality and goes for the Jesus Christ pose, fluttering total self indulgent and art wank imagery in front of you, in order to give us what he feels is a resolution, only its not, its horribly distracting and downright infuriating.

Tie that in with a slow build and probably 20 minutes that dont need to exist and this film can and does feel like a choir to watch. The Tree Of Life has a lot to say about family, respect and pinning your failures on your children, its stunning, its unique and most importantly its engaging.

But when Malick decides to let his inner art student out, the entire experience collapses into mediocrity. Film enthusiasts only, as the average film goer will despise whats on offer here.