Tree of Life

Saw Tree of Life (thanks, Steven!) It was a beautiful film. Very spiritual, it revolves around the oldest son of a family of three boys growing up. His mother is kind and loving, his father strict and disciplining. The mother comes off in a better light than the father, but it is clear the father is strict only out of a deep desire for his sons to succeed. This story is set within a larger frame in which we know the son will die young. This frame is also set within a yet larger frame of our place in the history of this planet and in the universe. This frame of reference is so vast it threatens to render all human action as insignificant, but the film attempts instead to cast this as an elaborate plan which, rather than being coldly indifferent to us, forgives us and loves us. As I say, a deeply spiritual film.

I've previously called films 'operatic' when I meant 'histrionic' but this film is operatic in a better sense of the word. It's beautiful and swooning, complex and layered. The film scores several scenes with classical music and it feels earned, rather than pretentious as it does in weaker films. At its best the film is oblique and touching, like when one brother gets another to forgive him. At its worst it is kind of obvious, as in the closing shots of some kind of heaven of people walking on a beach as birds fly overhead. There's also some stuff slightly disconcerting flying around in time. For a while we follow a grown-up version of one of the boys (I think) but possibly the one who dies? It gets a bit confusing, but this film is not a narrative, it is poetry and my failure of analysis is anyway trumped by my sensual enjoyment of the film.

The film is directed by Terrence Malick and he indulges in his usual slightly dream-like cinematography. There are several slow pans across beautiful vistas and whispery voice-overs galore (this is kind of a problem in fact. I sometimes wished I had subtitles.) He does make a pretty film though. I might have to make a point of watching more of his films.