By: debbie lynn elias
Terrence Malick, much like David Lynch, is a filmmaker one either “gets” or “doesn’t get”, “likes” or “loves” – there is no real in between. With Lynch, there is a vast body of work at the audiencefs disposal for viewing, analysis, thought, reflection and ultimate opining. As a director, Malick has a body of work that now consists of only five (5) features spanning 38 years, starting with the impressive “Badlands”, and followed up with “Days of Heaven”, “The Thin Red Line”, the visually impressive but overly dramatized and convoluted “The New World” and now, THE TREE OF LIFE. His most well-received and critically acclaimed film, “The Thin Red Line” garnered Malick two Oscar nominations while the jury at Cannes lauded him with their highest and most prestigious honor, the Palme d’Or for “Days of Heaven.” With THE TREE OF LIFE, Malick returned to Cannes where, on Sunday, after a controversial world premiere filled with both booing and applause from the audience and a mixed bag of critics’ reviews (and some allegedly tense jury deliberations), he walked away with another Palme d’Or, prompting much head scratching and critical discussion consisting for the most part of “Huh?” For myself, there are parts of THE TREE OF LIFE that are mesmerizing and awe inspiring, however, there are other parts that should have been left on the cutting room floor – and that includes Brad Pitt.
Given the huge “huh?” factor of THE TREE OF LIFE, I turn to the press notes to provide you with the film’s plot synopsis which explains the story as centering around Jack, played by Sean Penn, and his ” human struggles become part of the cosmos.” As part and parcel to this struggle, we meet Jack – both young and old, his siblings, his brute of a father, an apron-stringed mother and Malick’s visual interpretation of creation as set forth in the Book of Genesis in the Bible, complete with all the fire and brimstone and beauty one would expect from Cecile B. DeMille, and what appears to be the visualization of Jack’s struggle to connect with the sun, the moon, the stars, the dinosaurs, the flowers, the birds, the trees and his ultimate destiny. And somewhere in the middle amidst minimal, albeit still too much, dialogue, and some Biblical narrative, we are told, “That’s where God lives”, with a mother’s hand pointing to the sky. On watching the film, however, one has to dig pretty deep to grasp the cosmos connection conceptualization as what we see is an aging father and mother, reflecting on life in the 1950’s after learning of the death of one of their sons, and the harsh, often violent, manner in which Dad treated them growing up. Is Dad reflecting and regretting while Jack is now struggling to understand? Is Mom kicking herself for not being more assertive and protective of her children or has she just left everything to “God’s hands.” Everything is open to individual interpretation.
THE TREE OF LIFE is anything but a conventional film and Terrence Malick is anything but a conventional filmmaker. He is an artist, a visualist, with an innate sense of visual beauty and emotional empowerment. What he lacks is a concept of plot, characters and action.
After a minimal Act I or possibly even, the prologue, wherein Jack and his father are arguing over the death of Jack’s brother at the age of 19, we are blessedly transported to a visual heaven with the beginning of Creation, be it through God or some other higher being or with a Big Bang. No matter what, this creation sequence is one of the most stunning ever seen on film and is guaranteed to take your breath away. The distraction to this beauty, however, are muted mutterings of the teachings of Job and voice-over questioning “Did you know?”, “Who are we?”, “Who are we to you?” Again, the questioning is all open to individual interpretation as to its meaning. And all this is swirling in your head within 30-40 minutes. Then the film keeps going with the visuals of a family in 1950’s Mid-Texas that is allegedly created to set the stage for adult Jackfs ruminations on the meaning of life. Sadly, all it really does is annoy.
Turning to the acting, let’s start with Brad Pitt. If this film was about Darwin and his theory of evolution, Pitt is your man as here, with overly puffed up cheeks and jutting jowl, he looks more like a gorilla or Australopithecine. And while many may disagree with me and in fact, are already touting Pitt for Oscar consideration, there is one word that describes Pittfs performance in THE TREE OF LIFE. . . A-W-F-U-L. Disconnected, indifferent, anger which when put with his gorilla-like appearance is anything but compelling or appealing. He never gives a sense of being a man that would ever have regret or remorse in his later years, which then causes the film’s set-up to fail. Sean Penn, while not noxious or annoying as adult Jack, wanders around as if lost in a fog….which is clearly Malick’s intent, but again, the film is much more powerful with just the visuals of creation. That alone makes a meaningful statement. And Jessica Chastain who plays Mom or Mrs. O’Brien, adds to the imagery with her alabaster skin and angelic aura, but falls flat with heavy-handed dialogue intoning repeated Biblical reference.
The one acting standout falls on the shoulders of young Hunter McCracken who plays yong Jack. He is the one character who has a full emotional arc and McCracken hits every note be it the joy of being a kid without a care in the world, or doing all those kid things of days gone by like strapping a toad to a bottle rocket and launching it, or getting his kid brother to lick his finger and stick it in a light socket (something my brother got me to do – more than once), all the way to parental defiance and questioning authority and the pain and anger from the violence of his father. This is one helluva performance.
But THE TREE OF LIFE isn’t about acting. It’s about emotion through visuals and that’s exactly where it excels. The tacit awe of nature’s beauty is stunningly captured by cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki and the visual effects team headed by Dan Glass and Douglas Trumbull. There are no words to adequately describe the beauty and power of the imagery before us. Capturing Malick’s well known love of nature, the imagery seamlessly flows, swelling your heart with unspoken sensory magic. AMPAS can hand over the Academy Award for cinematography to Lubezki right now.
If one would take all of the sequences about Creation, starting with the limbo flame, on up through primordial ooze, paramecium and protozoa, dinosaurs, the Hubble space images, volcanoes, lava, oceans, mountains and green bright meadows with a robin’s egg blue sky and bright yellow sunflowers….take all that and add the exquisitely haunting chorale music of Alexandre Desplat, THE TREE OF LIFE would be the most wondrous movie of the year. There would be gasping at the rapturous beauty on screen. Cull the film down to that and you have a winner. The Creation and cosmos is essentially chapter and verse from Genesis and is so exquisitely executed as to be breathtaking. It will awaken or touch whatever spirituality each individual has inside without being preachy or hammer hitting. That alone makes a meaningful statement.
Now, this means take away the heavy-handed Biblical dialogue and the actors. That one line and visual image of “Thatfs where God lives” is so “in your face” as to be somewhat offensive, committing the essence of the film and spirituality to Christianity or Judaism, as if snubbing the beliefs of the rest of the world. Also problematic is a church scene with candles being lit that is clearly not a Catholic church and other Christian religions do not have candle lighting or prayer lights. And then you have a Jewish Yahrzeit candle being lit by Penn. Are the O’Briens Christian? Jewish? The film is too heavy handed for them to be non-denominational or “casual believers.” One way or another, there is a great sense of disrespect for religions with the respective practices being bandied about and muddled.
As I mentioned above, Alexandre Desplat’s score, which includes the works of Bach, Brahmes, and other classical magicians, is heaven on earth. From the simplicity of a church organ to the haunting sounds of a chorale, the score not only compliments the visual imagery (particularly the Creation sequence) but creates and provides its own emotional stamp, so much so, I look forward to a soundtrack of the score.
A perfect art house film, THE TREE OF LIFE is breathtaking to look at, esoteric and philosophical, divisive as to purpose and parlayance, but so heavy-handed and controversial in its emotional marching orders as to create not only confusion but the perpetual question on so many levels of “Why?”
Mr. O’Brien – Brad Pitt
Mrs. O’Brien – Jessica Chastain
Adult Jack – Sean Penn
Young Jack – Hunter McCracken
Written and Directed by Terrence Malick.
