‘The Tree of Life’

Director: Terrence Malick

Starring: Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain, Hunter McCracken, Sean Penn

5/5 Popcorns

Notoriously reclusive director Terrence Malick may bethe only American filmmaker who aspires to produce works that that nobody cares – or aspires – to make anymore.  During his 38-year career, he has made only five films. His new film, ‘The Tree of Life,’ is beautiful, mesmerizing and impenetrable—a rare and epic chronicle of American life defined by personal sentiments.

Malick disappeared from moviemaking for 20 years between his second film, ‘Days of Heaven’ (1978), and his third, ‘The Thin Red Line’ (1998), a period during which he supposedly set to work on the project that would eventually come to be ‘The Tree of Life.’ The result is a transcendent culmination of a life devoted to understandinghow humans interact with the world and how they are influenced by nature, a powerful force we hardly ever consider but plays a big part in determining the paths we each take.

Set in the early fifties, ‘The Tree of Life’ begins with Mr. And Mrs. O’Brien (Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain) receiving word of their 19-year old son’s death. They wordlessly grieve for their child in a thoughtful and haunting sequence that introduces their eldest son, Jack (Sean Penn), a successful architect wandering morosely through the glassy confines of the present-day corporate world.

Mourning the loss of his younger brother, Jack wonders via narration how his fated brother came to exist, a question that Malick answers with an awe-inspiring, scientific interpretation of the birth of the cosmos, from the first tangible molecule through the age of the dinosaurs.

We’re then reluctantly transported back to early-fifties Waco, Texas, where young Jack (Hunter McCracken) grows up with his two younger brothers. Jack’s transition from childhood to adolescence is complicated by the conflicting ideals of his fiercely strict father and his loving, but frustratingly passive mother. He resents his father, whose harshness is occasionally overwhelming, and adores his uncommonly affectionate mother. When he becomes a teenager with a fertile consciousness, he investigates more thoroughly which parent he most resembles, as he navigates the world that perplexes him with its ruthlessness and elusive beauty.

The film’s fundamental ideal is introduced in the opening sequence. ‘There are two ways through life,’ claims Mrs. O’Brien via narration: ‘The way of nature, and the way of grace.’ Humans must choose which path to follow, but it isn’t a conscious decision that he or she inevitably arrives upon. Malick creates a clear distinction between Mr. and Mrs. O’Brien as opposing forces of nature and grace. Thoroughly considering their differences, Jack embarks on a spiritual journey complicated by an uneven love for his parents that can never be reconciled.

A passage from the Book of Job sets the religious undertones of the film: ‘Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation…while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for Joy?’ The film is set in a small, middle-class, semi-rural Texas town; the characters attend church together, pray at various times in their homes and recite grace before meals. This is a movie about life that starts with a biblical quote and concludes in a God-created environment. But this is not the work of an evangelist. Malick’s depiction of the birth of the cosmos is more thoroughly detailed and vivid than any video you’re likely to watch in science class.

Entrancingly photographed by the brilliant cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, the look of the picture is unmistakable as a Malick film with the perpetually moving camera, sweeping shots of nature and emphasis on visual storytelling. Not a single substantial conversation takes place in the entire film, but the viewer hardly notices simply because Malick is so great at communicating visually what would seem pedantic or verbose if expressed in words. Brad Pitt delivers the best performance of his career as the cruel but caring Mr. O’Brien, and the performances of the non-professional kids, especially Hunter McCraken, are uniformly terrific.

‘The Tree of Life’ is not the equal of a timeless masterwork like ‘2001: A Space Odyssey,’ which tracked human evolution from primates through space travel while hypothesizing and abstractly answering many questions concerning our standing in the universe. However, it brings something altogether different and refreshing to the table.

This is a sad and beautiful story, and it’s the first of Malick’s works that could be called autobiographical. The film is set in Malick’s hometown of Waco where he had a Christian upbringing, and one of his brothers, Lawrence, died young. Malick has given just one interview in the last 38 years, so to behold such a revealing work is to witness the potential of the cinema to bring out in a great artist that which he could never say, and it is truly beautiful.

smlittma@syr.edu

Published on June 14, 2011 at 12:00 pm