REVIEW: The Tree of Life

 There are no spoilers in this review.

PLOT: Jack finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith.


THE GOOD: Terrence Malick. Writer and director Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life starts with some select Biblical passages from the Book of Job. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?...when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? (Job 38:4, 7) In this part of the book, Job is questioning why he has suddenly descended into ruin because of the devil's interference. I believe this movie is what Terrence Malick thinks God's answer would be. For there are so many things Job does not know about. How this world was formed. How nature works. We, as humans, are Job. Constantly on the search to know more, but we cannot know the Creator's plan for the world. The Tree of Life can be seen as the best Christian movie of the year (Take THAT Courageous!). With Malick's steady hand, he evokes human feeling on screen better than any other director this year. He announced this movie in late 2005, which means it has probably been stewing around in his head way earlier than that. This is the man that took 20 years between Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line, then seven years until The New World, and then six years until The Tree of Life. Thankfully, we won't have to wait as long for his next film. If you haven't enjoyed any of his previous films, it's likely that The Tree of Life is not going to convert you. Malick's experimental directing style is certainly not for everyone and even cinematic veterans will need more than one viewing to fully appreciate his work.

If you enjoyed this film and are confronted by a person who hated it, just tell them that they are not smart, deep, or sensitive enough. That will clear things right up.

Acting. Brad Pitt's performance in The Tree of Life completely outshines his work in Moneyball. It was completely believable and natural. The same goes for Jessica Chastain who has just had the most amazing 2011. Hunter McCracken plays the younger version of Jack who really does a good job. The tension and fierceness in his character is felt throughout the whole film. I was constantly frightened to see what would happen next between him and Brad Pitt's character.

Cinematography. This is the second time Terrence Malick has enlisted the help of Emmanuel Lubezki. The four-time Academy Award nominated cinematographer also worked with Malick on his next film. Lubezki is shared by director Alfonso Cuarón who has used him in every single one of his features, with the exception of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. For The Tree of Life, Lubezki deploys free form and natural elements to his filming. It was so important to Malick that interior spaces be unlighted that they used three different houses in the main story; each individually used depending on the time of day and the position of the sun. Lubezki and the director wanted those natural black blacks, so there is actually only one shot in the entire film that is underexposed. There's lots of handheld stuff and the camera gets in very close to actors' faces, and it is for this reason that they shot in standard 1.85:1 with 4-perf for maximum resolution and low grain.

Douglas Trumbull. Terrence Malick approached Douglas Trumbull for some of the unique special effects during the forming of the universe sequence. Trumbull was the pioneer behind some of the visual scenes in 2001: A Space Odyssey. He also worked on the imagery in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and Blade Runner. For The Tree of Life, Trumbull utilized micro-photography in which he filmed cellular and chemical activity on a minute scale to illustrate the formation of galactic bodies and processes. It was just announced last week that The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present Douglas Trumbull with the Gordon E. Sawyer Award for his body of work and technical innovation in cinematic visual effects.

BRAD PITT: "Jazz handsssss!"

THE BAD: Alexandre Desplat. I must say that I was quite disappointed with Alexandre Desplat's score to the film. Don't get me wrong, there is some great musical work in here, just nothing very original from Desplat. In the movie, you will hear classics from Bach, Brahms, Berlioz, Smetana, Mahler, Holst, Respighi, Couperin, and more. You can totally tell when Desplat's score comes in because it's uninspiring.

CGI. CGI is used sparingly in this film, but when it is used, particularly in a scene with prehistoric creatures, it looks bad. Along the same lines of the stuff you will see on Discovery Channel or History Channel.


THE END: The Tree of Life won the Palme d'Or at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and has an 84% out of 236 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. While critics seem to like the film, the general public's reaction has been greatly mixed. There were as many walkouts in theatres as there were people praising this film as a pure work of art. What Malick has bravely done here is create visual poetry. It was my #13 favorite film of 2011, but who knows where it would be after repeat viewings. Check this one out.


DISCUSS: What did you think of The Tree of Life? What do you think of Terrence Malick? Did you like the performances in this film? How did you interpret the overall theme?

This shot comes from a montage in the film that starts with creation, slowly makes its way through primordial sea, the spark of life, fish, reptiles, then the dawn of the dinosaurs, then the dinosaurs being wiped out by a giant flaming Mel Gibson head.