Review of To the Wonder (2013) by Hoops2448 — 22 Apr 2013

While not the most talentless director, Terrance Malick is definitely the most self absorbed, telling stories he and only he wants to tell and more importantly hear. The tales he weaves are so personal that hardly anyone can interpret them and that's exactly what you have to do despite the fact to do so requires the enigma machine.

The film follows a man (Ben Affleck) and woman (Olga Kurylenko) who contemplate love, loss, religion and forgiveness as the man reconnects with a past flame (Rachel McAdams) and the woman longs to find a place she can call home.

My main problem with to the wonder lies in the fact that the film is plot free, there is no story here to tell and because of this the film is terribly dull, a monotonous journey through passing thoughts and the moments between the interesting things that happen in a persons life.

The film lives in a world so disconnected from the one its pretending to live in, the characters are drained of all emotion, any semblance of character or purpose, they merely exist in a place where nothing at all happens.

Malick, like with Tree of Life doesn't care so much about character (if at all) but in themes and messages. To the Wonder has plenty to say in terms of themes and messages but no way for anyone to read it, watching it isn't enough unfortunately.

These characters ponder philosophy as part of their own inner monologues but without any human emotion behind it they just sound half cut, as if the bartender forgot to say enough is enough. These people are constantly in their own heads and as a human action its fine, but as characters in a movie they never say a meaningful spoken word and I argue they never say a single meaningful thing in the psychobabble that accompanies their depressingly pitiful existences.

The film depicts a couple so broken that everyone leaves them but you never feel sorry for them because the characters Malick depicts are dreadful, reprehensible people. I'd comment on the acting but none was really required as if Malick just told his stars to wander and gosh darn think about something poignant, it's just too bad we couldn't see what they were thinking about.

To the Wonder is Malick's worst film to date yet arguably his most personal, however if this is his idea of personal I'd rather he try to stay out of his own head and try to emulate someone else.