Review of The Tree of Life (2011) by Brendan F — 15 Aug 2014

I thoroughly enjoyed this motion picture. The section that takes place in Waco, TX, is superbly done. Brad Pitt is great as the head of the O'Brien family of five, as is Jessica Chastain as the gracefully passive matriarch. A lot of folks bristle at Malick's free-form tone poem-esque style of filmmaking but for this particular story it's very well suited because it apparently is based on the life that he lived growing up in small town Eisenhower Middle America. He knows the long and languorous way of life that used to be before the upper middle class started chauffeuring their offspring to self-improvement classes and seminars. He's familiar with the free range way of growing up. Does it tie in well with the much grander scope of the creation of the universe? Probably not, but I cannot deny the integrity of the film because of the emotional content that it packs.

It is no secret that the narrative wasn't the primary emphasis of the film as the emphasis was rather on the details of emotion and thought rather than rhyme or reason. Malick, I believe, wanted to make a film that was a meditation on our existence and our being and perhaps even the why of it all. And I dig that. Totally and completely.