The Tree of Life

Terrence Malick is a very talented director whose output is extremely limited (5 movies in almost 40 years!!) and often so artistically overworked, he’s inexorably misunderstood.  Alas, I count myself in the column of those who did not “get” his latest effort.

Synopsis: The Tree of Life is woven with what I guess are multiple storylines that converge in some way into a common resolution.  At the center, we have a very ordinary family that deals with their daily ups and downs until a terrible event shakes it to the core.

While that short description wouldn’t seem too complex or out of the ordinary, The Tree of Life is constructed in such a way that the main story I mentioned above is often interspersed with some of the most magnificent and obscure images I’ve ever seen.  Malick, undisputedly, is a master at crafting the most striking images that ever graced the silver screen, but unfortunately those images in this movie have nothing to do with the advancement of the story per se.  Or rather, since many viewers must have found some meaning in those images, I didn’t find any relation whatsoever between the main story and that magnificent padding.

A movie, at its core, tells a story.  A screenplay lays it out, the actors put it in play, and a director orchestrates the whole thing.  If there’s something on the screen that seems to have no relation to the story the filmmaker is trying to tell, then they shouldn’t be there.  It’s pretty simple.  Now, again, I’m sure the people who “got” the meaning of those images would beg to disagree with me, but for me they were too esoteric and basically detracted from the final product.

The screenplay, by Malick, was another puzzle.  While long parts of the movie have no spoken words (and I don’t have a problem with that), other parts have words that are faded out and indiscernible, bringing me to wonder if Malick’s goal was to tip the balance heavily in favor of what you see versus what you hear.  Again, puzzling.

The Bottom Line: The man is undoubtedly enormously talented.  Every image on screen, whether computer generated or not, is perfectly constructed and would look amazing in an art gallery.  The conceptual story is gripping and makes for great drama.  And the actors all give excellent performances, especially Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain.  But for me, ultimately, this movie was less than the sum of its parts and felt like a drama mixed up with a documentary (or several), which brought the overall grade way lower than I wanted to assign.

Grade: 4