Review of To the Wonder (2013) by Frank N — 29 Apr 2013

Beautiful to look at, but burdened with a threadbare narrative and exposition-heavy voiceover, 'To the Wonder' strives for deeply emotional truths - but its efforts feel forced.

Terrence Malick has a very distinct style: 90 percent voiceover, gorgeous cinematography and sparse, but meaningful, dialogue. This is true for Malick's previous films ('The Thin Red Line' and 'The Tree of Life') and 'To the Wonder' continues his stylistic streak.

The screenplay is the central flaw of 'Into the Wonder.' Films are stories - 'Wonder' is barely a story.

First, the narrative is minimal at best. 'Wonder' spends more time describing how the characters feel than about spending time on allowing the characters make justified decisions or reveal why they feel such deep pain. Events and characters seem to randomly occur. Characters are in love, out of love, in love and out of love. Scenes jarringly crash into each other, leaving the film with a disjointed story flow. On this note, characters - specifically the Rachel McAdams and Javier Bardem characters - simply appear and disappear.

Second - and perhaps more damaging - is the flat out exposition voiceover crutch. Much of the voiceover simply declares a character's emotional states: 'I feel sad' or 'We fight' or 'I feel exhausted.' Even if emotionally true, this film makes little to no effort to justify its emotional core. 'Wonder' is more a collection of feelings and less a story of how or why these feels took such deep root within each of the characters.

Finally, making every line of dialogue sound poetically lyrical or profoundly insightful - given the absolute minimal amount of dialogue in the film - feels forced. Great spans of deliberate silence are broken up by occasional, but 'deep' dialogue. Very little of the words spoken feel conversational or natural. In its desperate bid to convey profound and honest emotional truths, 'To the Wonder' leaves little room to relate these emotions via narrative.

To its credit, 'To the Wonder' is incredibly beautiful to look at. Watching it, with the audio muted, would make for an interesting looking film - sadly, it is more interesting looking than well assembled story. Sometimes, 'Wonder' looks like a really long perfume ad - complete with over-the-top acting for the camera and whispered dialogue.

Final verdict: 'To the Wonder' deals with intense emotions, but does almost nothing, in terms of storytelling, to honestly justify such emotional drama. Sadly, pass on this film.