The Tree of Life

It's way too early to be calling this but I'm doing it anyway, The Tree of Life is the best film of 2011. If a better movie comes out I'll happily eat my words, but I just cannot see it happening. That being said, this isn't a movie for everyone. If you were excited about seeing the new Transformers film then this most likely isn't for you. If you found Black Swan to be too weird or "Arsty" then this isn't for you. If you want to see this film because it has Brad Pitt in it then this DEFINITELY isn't for you. I don't say this for the sake of sounding arrogant or pretentious, but rather to ram home the point that The Tree of Life wasn't made with the general movie going public in mind, and alot of people will hate it with a passion. And that's fine.

It appears that many people who dislike this movie have been quick to praise the film for it's visuals and artistic merits (as who can deny the amazing cinematography? If it doesn't win the Oscar in that field then we may as well declare the whole ceremony a sham) but have also heavily criticised the storytelling devices used or, more specifically, the lack of a storyline. Usually I will be first in line to slam a film for lacking a good narrative, however it wasn't director Terrence Malick's intention to tell a well crafted story. He had something much more ambitious in mind.

Beginning with an amazing sequence showing the formation of the universe and early life developing on Earth, and ending with a sequence that could only be interpreted as the afterlife, Malick attempts to, in a way, explore the whole human journey in one 130 something minute film. The bulk of the film in between focuses on a typical American middle class family in the 50's, with father (Brad Pitt) mother (Jessica Chastain) and three young boys. The oldest boy is shown in the future, played by Sean Penn, looking back over his childhood whilst trying to make sense of the death of one of his brothers.

It's here that we see Malick explore through this family as many elements of life that mankind deal with that was humanly possible to fit in under 2 and a half hours. Birth, death, marriage, growing up, loss of innocence, lost dreams, greed and ambition, search for meaning, search for and relationship with God, parents relationships with their children and the effect this had. It's all covered.

Viewing this film wasn't just a regular trip to the cinema for me, it was an almost transcendent otherworldly experience. As a Christian I saw this film as being a 130+ minute appreciation of God and life. I came out thinking that you would have to be at least agnostic to enjoy this film, however that was just what I took out of it, the film is open to interpretation and I'm sure atheists can enjoy it immensely based on their own take on it. I've already seen the film twice, and if I heard of anyone wanting to see it I'd jump at the chance to see it again in the cinema. If you immerse yourself in the experience instead of driving yourself crazy trying to figure out every single symbolic element of the film, this is a very moving and powerful film for those open to it.

***** out of *****