1 Time Film Excess Nominee:
Best Non-adult Actor: Laramie Eppler, Hunter McCracken, Tye Sheridan (lost to Amara Miller for The Descendants)
+ Best Art Film of the Year
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| 25 frames from Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, showing its apparent ambition to include everything in life in its 'tale' |
The unusual, poetic Illinois-born director Terrence Malick (Badlands (1973)) won the Palme d'Or in Cannes in 2011 with his 5th feature, The Tree of Life, which is a visual meditation on the circumstances of life on earth, from beginning to end, more or less.
Talking about 'the plot' in Tree seems incorrect, since it truly isn't a plot film. But it does have a core story of sorts, even though it is never fully illuminated:
A family in 50s Waco, Texas: A kind, all-embracing mother, an authoritarian and often away father and three sons. The older one develops a conflict with himself and his attitude towards the mix of ideals at home. The parents fight and finally move out of Waco.
Linked to the 'plot' is one of the sons, who walks around New York in the present day and thinks back on his childhood. He is played by Sean Penn (Milk (2008)), who has later said that he didn't understand the film. This is understandable, and he surely has the strangest role in the film; with hardly any lines, he just walks around the cityscape looking confused, lost and/or contemplative. He walks in a desert, he walks on a beach. Penn looks sulky or depressed, and that seems to be his role. It's not a great part, even if Penn is accomplished at looking blue; I understand if he left Tree with an apprehensive head-shaking.
On the other hand, the 50s level has great roles, and great acting by everyone there; Brad Pitt (Fight Club (1999)) is impressively credible as the father; Jessica Chastain (The Help (2011)) beautifully portrays the mother, who tries to instill female sensitivity in her sons but sometimes must accept that they are male.
And the boys who play brothers are simply incredible. How Malick gets this level of authenticity out of such young actors is amazing to me. They are Tye Sheridan (Mud (2013)), Hunter McCracken and Laramie Eppler. Their faces and bodies are just so alive and so true in their scenes. There are also great scenes of scores of kids playing in a playground etc., and I thought that the scenes with the kids were the best thing in Tree. So evocative of childhood, so true and so rare. Magnificent work here.
The cinematography is very organic and alive in Tree without ever feeling stressed. It is accomplished by the bold, talented Emmanuel Lubezki (The Children of Men (2006)).
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| Jessica Chastain and Tye Sheridan are mother and son in Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life |
The details:
The film is stuffed with nature, chemistry and the universe. The 'story' comes in drops and isn't concerned with hooking its audience, before the film blurs out in poetic imagery. These lengthy passages can be likened to some of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and little else that I have ever seen. Malick is still very unique as a filmmaker. It is visually quite stunning. But perhaps hurried?
The pacing is very fast, so we jump through explosions, volcanoes, organisms, dinosaurs and sharks in few minutes, while the narration is carrying out a kind of one-way conversation with God/poem. Though interesting to look at, these passages were not my main interest in Tree.
I feel that something is missing in the film. Because it is The Tree of Life, supposedly an all-encompassing rendition of life, I feel it slights several aspects of life, and I have to criticize that: Death, sex and waste to name three of the foremost things in life. Death is hinted at a few times; sex and waste are non-existent. Illness is hinted at. Killing, - even killing to survive in nature, - is erased.
In this light, Tree is not a serious film about life.
Rather it is a highly pleasing, aesthetically speaking, very lyrical and poetic film with some very fine 50s scenes. (And some mysticism, like Chastain suddenly floating around in the air.)
But essentially escapist, and seemingly not serene about this fact.
Malick's journey as a director is very interesting. From his masterpiece feature debut Badlands (1973), he took long to follow it up with Days of Heaven (1978) and then incredibly long to follow that up with the great The Thin Red Line (1998), - for which he was twice Oscar-nominated. He then made The New World (2005), a beautiful but strained and pretentious look at the exploration and 'civilizing' of America. After Tree, - for which he was again Oscar-nominated as Best Director, - he has quit being the incredibly slow director; releasing To The Wonder (2012) to down-turned thumbs almost everywhere, and this year, Knight of Cups, a story about fame and excess with Christian Bale and a long line of other famous actors. He even has a second film coming out in 2014, Voyage of Time, a film that seems close to Tree but without any plot level. This has spurred rumors that Malick might be dying, although this is just speculation. The recluse director is notorious for his unwillingness to give interviews himself, so, naturally, we don't know for sure what is the reason for Malick's sudden escalating productivity.
Related posts:
Terrence Malick: 2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
Badlands (1973) or, Kit and Holly in Love
Brad Pitt and Laramie Eppler as father and son in Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life
Watch the trailer for the film here and try not to get goose-pimples. Impossible. Visually, Malick's films are incredible, and Tree of Life is no exception.
Budget: 32 mil. $
Box office: 54.3 mil. $
= Minor success
What do you think of The Tree of Life?
What do you think is the deal with Malick's many movies now?
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