The Tree of Death...

So tonight I decided, fairly excitedly, to see "Tree of Life," with a good friend. I had previously been acquainted with Malick's work, having seen "Thin Red Line," and painting the Anna Sui backdrop with a "Days of Heaven" theme. Sadly, that backdrop is far more beautiful, coherent and visually sensical than Malick's latest film.

I am not a die-hard Malick fan, but was curious to see the film which had been slated to release a number of times and had been made in roughly 2008. Brad Pitt notably looks much younger than in recent press photos. The theater was chock full of a wide variety of people, all eagerly anticipating the movie which has received quite varying and conflicting reviews.

Whether Malick captures spiritual transcendence, a tale of love and loss and self revelation or just a cinematographic masterpiece is beyond me. I was interested enough at first about the story of Sean Penn, the grown son of Brad Pitt and newcomer Jessica Chastain, and how he appeared to be disconnected and confused with the present day world/environment. It began with the apparent death of the middle brother, shown as a sweet and trusting boy throughout the film. Despite the fact that their eldest son is now more than grown, Brad and Jessica were not aged in the least.

However, my interest sort waned when the juxtaposition of present-day Sean Penn/fifties style childhood shots morphed into a scene from James Cameron meets Planet Earth. Literally, for thirty minutes, I watched the screen evolve from faux dinosaurs, jelly fish, sharks, amoebas, mountains, planets, earth, lava....the list continues.

Whatever tangible threads of interesting plot Malick hinted at (relationship between eldest son and loving yet abusive father, the limits and constraints of brotherly love, adolescent blooming into an infatuation with the older woman next door), were diminished or never fully brought to fruition. He created a visual masterpiece, with shots that rival Peter Jackson and James Cameron.

However, the intertwining of this imagery with a coherent plot line, rich with religious undertones and ideas, Southern upbringing, parental/child relations and human conflict, were ruined by horrible transitions with no rhyme or reason. I felt beyond disconnected and discombobulated after exiting the theater, wanting either a Sci-Fi/Planet Earth/3-D Avatar-type extravaganza, or simply a wonderfully emotional and riveting film about human and family interaction, lives and values (The beach scene where people are supposedly dead or accepting death ran for another wasteful twenty minutes or so....). That pretty much sums up my thoughts on this film.