The Tree of Life, 2011.
Written and Directed by Terrence Malick.
Starring Brad Pitt, Sean Penn and Jessica Chastain.
SYNOPSIS:
The film follows the life journey of the eldest son of a Midwestern family through the innocence of childhood in the 1950s to his disillusioned adult years in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith.
Terrence Malick’s rapturously striking, emotionally arresting visual poem travels between the O’Briens, a middle-American family in the 1950s and the cycle of existence, from the inception of the earth to modern times and beyond. Old Jack (Sean Penn) has lost his way and channels his formative years when young Jack (Hunter McCracken) must choose a path – between father (Brad Pitt) and mother competition and allegiance, success and happiness. Dreams and memory collide in Jack’s spiritual, emotional and intellectual journey as he seeks to reconcile with the past, to reclaim his relationship with his father and to properly mourn the loss of his brother. The Tree of Life is vastly more dense and labyrinthine than Malick’s previous films (The New World, The Thin Red Line, Days of Heaven, Badlands), the fluid and almost ‘jazz-like’ editing is punctuated by Alexandre Desplat’s soaring symphony and Emmanuel Lubezki’s cinematography – that exemplifies the jaw dropping beauty of Malick’s directorial eye.
“There are two ways through life – the way of nature and the way of grace,” says the voice of Jack’s mother (Jessica Chastain), in the opening moments of The Tree of Life, and in my opinion there are going to be two types of people in this world, people who will love this film and people who don’t and I’m firmly in the former. I’ve said before that The Tree of Life was in my top five most anticipated films of the year and I went into this with remarkably higher expectations than I did when attending other films in the festival. And even with my expectations at almost atmospheric heights I was still irrevocably moved and challenged by this film. The Tree of Life elicited the closest thing to a devout connection that an atheist cinephile like myself could experience. Through Jack (Sean Penn) Malick projects a subconscious internal discussion about how one arrives at who they are and at the same time trying to understand the meaning of existence.
All of the actors are effortlessly moving. Sean Penn doesn’t surprise anyone with his capacity to authentically portray deep scarring and pain. He is truly one of the finest actors in our generation. Brad Pitt’s father character is nuanced but totally three dimensional – he is a deeply flawed character that despite his best efforts cannot hide his feeling of inadequacies and self loathing that manifests itself in outbursts toward his children. Jessica Chastain’s mother character is a beautiful haven of empathy and warmth that irrevocably loves and adores her children. The real surprise asset of this film is young Jack (Hunter McCracken). We spend a substantial amount of time with young Jack (McCracken) and he demonstrates the capacity to absorb Penn’s aura and project his mannerisms to echo the gravitas of Jack in later life.
The limited narrative within the film finds the Jack character asking questions about his life and so for the largest time we are seeing him growing up as a young man experiencing adolescence. Malick doesn’t cheapen or disregard the significance of this important moment – he magnifies it. The larger questions of existence outside of this essential moment in time portray the birth of earth, portray moments of evolution and give a spiritual appreciation for the wonder of nature and the stunning beauty that abounds and surrounds us. In true Malick style – we’re spoiled with many shots of unbridled natural beauty and surprisingly an absolutely exquisite appreciation for the suburban world. The neighbourhood encircled by trees and manicured lawns; with houses that are open to all of the natural light is an idealised ‘Malicked’ suburbia.
In formulating an impression of the beginning of the world and asking questions about life invariably the topic of spirituality comes up. The Tree of Life is spiritually ambiguous. The O’Brien family is religious but I think that the mother character sees her God (via Malick’s perspective) not in a church or in prayer but in nature and every aspect of life – especially her children.
Malick is famous for stunning idealistic natural beauty in cinematography and in this film he really has an opportunity to emphasise the beautiful nature moments without it feeling like it distracts from a narrative because the narrative is the conduit to this subconscious discussion.
The great dimension and really catalyst for this film is understanding the impact of death in the family; and some of the most heart wrenching and significant moments in the film involve the characters questioning each other about death. Malick also injects a great impression of what could be considered as the after life, I not going to give away of what exactly that is, but it isn’t clear in my mind anyway whether this is Jack’s hope of the after life and what it will involve or an after life in the context of the world that we’ve watch been born and grow.
Malick has truly out done himself with The Tree of Life. Sometimes there are significant films that resonate with you; that swirl their images around you mind; that etch themselves to the insides of your eyelids so that they are inescapable; that cause great debate and impassioned love and fiery hate. The Tree of Life is a signpost,; it’s a chapter title; its an important, significant, poetic, beautiful film.
Blake Howard is a writer/site director/podcaster at the castleco-op.com.
Vision Quest: The Making of The Tree of Life
Movie Review Archive
Originally published June 18, 2011. Updated April 10, 2018.
