I have been sitting on this film for 2 and ½ weeks and still cannot figure out how I want to go about my review, so instead of letting a difficult task waste away I am going to forge forward. In the 17 days that I have been thinking about this film I have had several contrasting thoughts but what it comes down to truly is, did I like this film? My answer to that is I still do not know how I feel about the film but I will try to express my thoughts as clear as I can.
The Tree of Life follows a family from the beginning to the end. By beginning I do not mean from start of their union as a family, I mean from the Earths creation. Big bang, cell division, dinosaurs, evolution, you catch my drift? So imagine you are sitting there watching a movie about a family and all of a sudden the television turns you to a channel airing Walking With Dinosaurs, Carl Sagan's Cosmos and Through the Wormhole but you have an inability to change the channel. Then after about 40 minutes of that you beam back to the movie you were watching about a family and you say to yourself, "wow, it almost seems like they were connected." Welcome to the world of Malick and his film The Tree of Life.
As a movie it lacked dialogue, direction, and continuity so if you wanted to see something engaging on tangible level this film will anger you, but you should have known that going in, Malick does not care what you think, nor should he. His movies are never to please an audience but to try to stop himself from cutting his own ear off, it is a release for him, not for you or me.
As a work of art it was beautifully shot, thought-provoking and spiritual, so if you wanted to be engaged in an intangible tour of a man's psyche with picturesque visions and dreamlike shots of life that kind of go together but often veer off like the mind of a toddler then this film will blow you away.
I am no Malick aficionado; I have seen Badlands which I loved and A Thin Red Line which I also loved but have yet to see Days of Heaven, his most critically acclaimed film, and his 2005 film The New World. What I do know or think is that Malick's films are often more about the art than the content, more about a vision than a message, and more about himself than the audience.
The Tree of Life is a film that asks the questions but does not have the answers; there are no real beginnings or ends, just a myriad of themes beautifully shot within the journey of a family, from creation to death. It is not going to be for everyone but then again it was not meant for everyone.
check out our site at 3guys1movie.com
The Tree of Life follows a family from the beginning to the end. By beginning I do not mean from start of their union as a family, I mean from the Earths creation. Big bang, cell division, dinosaurs, evolution, you catch my drift? So imagine you are sitting there watching a movie about a family and all of a sudden the television turns you to a channel airing Walking With Dinosaurs, Carl Sagan's Cosmos and Through the Wormhole but you have an inability to change the channel. Then after about 40 minutes of that you beam back to the movie you were watching about a family and you say to yourself, "wow, it almost seems like they were connected." Welcome to the world of Malick and his film The Tree of Life.
As a movie it lacked dialogue, direction, and continuity so if you wanted to see something engaging on tangible level this film will anger you, but you should have known that going in, Malick does not care what you think, nor should he. His movies are never to please an audience but to try to stop himself from cutting his own ear off, it is a release for him, not for you or me.
As a work of art it was beautifully shot, thought-provoking and spiritual, so if you wanted to be engaged in an intangible tour of a man's psyche with picturesque visions and dreamlike shots of life that kind of go together but often veer off like the mind of a toddler then this film will blow you away.
I am no Malick aficionado; I have seen Badlands which I loved and A Thin Red Line which I also loved but have yet to see Days of Heaven, his most critically acclaimed film, and his 2005 film The New World. What I do know or think is that Malick's films are often more about the art than the content, more about a vision than a message, and more about himself than the audience.
The Tree of Life is a film that asks the questions but does not have the answers; there are no real beginnings or ends, just a myriad of themes beautifully shot within the journey of a family, from creation to death. It is not going to be for everyone but then again it was not meant for everyone.
check out our site at 3guys1movie.com