'The Tree of Life' - in a Word, AMAZING

Terrence Malick's fifth movie in forty years comes to us not long after winning the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. While certain scenes had a color scheme that reminded me of Gaspar Noe's "Enter The Void," "The Tree Of Life" feels unlike any other movie I've seen before it. Describing it is challenging, but it is filled with such extraordinary images and is a deeply philosophical piece on the meaning of life and how we're constantly chasing after it. You have to go into this one with an open mind and just let it wash over you like a dream. It leaves us with questions to ponder, and it will mean something different to each person who sees it.

The basic story has us observing the lives of Mr. and Mrs. O'Brien who are parents to three boys. As the movie opens, one of them has died though we're not sure how, and the loss hovers over the entire story. We then go on to one of their sons, Jack, who is all grown up and now feels lost in a modern world that has become so soulless. Through the use of voiceovers (which Malick has used in the past to great effect), he yearns to find meaning and a connection to God in a time seems completely bereft of it. The narrative then jerks us all the way back to the beginning of mankind and of how the species evolved to where Jack is brought into the world. Heck, even dinosaurs make a cameo appearance!

Much of "The Tree Of Life" is seen through the eyes of a child as we watch Jack come into his consciousness and being swept up in the joy and wonderment that is life. There have been many coming of age movies over the years, but I don't remember one that captured the endless fascination of a child so vividly. We feel like we are making these discoveries along with the children which makes for an enthralling experience. Malick finds tremendous meaning even in the most mundane of details, and that's one of the reasons he remains a true visionary in cinema today.

We also come to see the strong differences in how mom and dad raise the children, and of how the children remain at odds in pleasing them both. The mother (Jessica Chastain) is the more appealing one, teaching her boys the importance of loving others unselfishly. The father on the other hand is a strict (though loving) disciplinarian who encourages his kids to put their own desires above all else. The way he sees it, being a good guy doesn't get you to where you need to be or what you want. Finding the balance between a mother's and father's love provides much confusion in particular for Jack as he grows up.

While watching the boys make all sorts of wonderful discoveries about life is invigorating, the movie is also tinged with sadness as we know how wonder they have in what they see will eventually give way to the harsh truths of reality. We feel the end of their innocence when they witness men being arrested by police, and even more so when a boy around their age suddenly dies. The death of one suddenly feels like a betrayal of God to them; how could the supreme being allow an innocent boy to die a needless death?

Terrence Malick directs "The Tree Of Life" the way he has directed the majority of his movies; with an emphasis on images that make you feel like you're watching a silent movie. There's very little dialogue throughout, and much of the soundtrack is dominated by classical music and a powerful film score by Alexandre Desplat. The images depicted go from realistic to utterly fantastical, and they're all mixed up to create a journey that holds you in its grasp even as you wonder where it's headed next.

Knowing what I know now about Terrence, this looks to be his most personal movie to date. Like the characters, he was born and raised in Waco, Texas, a town known more for the madness of David Koresh than anything else it has accomplished. Like Jack, he was the oldest of his brothers, one whom tragically died at a young age. Perhaps "The Tree Of Life" is his way of making peace with what happened to him and his family, and of the guilt that (however irrational) consumed him deeply as a result. Nobody has to tell you that those emotional scars never fully heal. You just have to learn to make peace with them.

Much of what we see in "The Tree Of Life" seems derived from one of Malick's lost projects entitled "Q." The script for that also dealt with the origins of life and glorious visuals of jellyfish in the ocean, volcanoes exploding, and of the universe's beginnings. Ironically, this was the last thing Terrence worked on before he went into a twenty year hiatus from directing. While "The Tree Of Life" may be a completely separate project from "Q," it looks as though he finally found the confidence to capture the images and themes that have meant so much to him. A good amount of credit should go to director of photography Emmanuel Lubezki whose beautiful work throughout this picture will be hard to top.

I'm not familiar with Jessica Chastain's work as an actress, but as the mother, she is wonderfully luminous. Her presence onscreen has a beauty to it that perfectly encapsulates her character's need to pass on the importance of loving in life to her kids. Jessica at times looks infinitely ethereal as Mrs. O'Brien, and her performance is the one I will remember most from this experience of a motion picture.

As the father Mr. O'Brien, Brad gives one of his best and most subdued performances ever. It's also an implosive performance as while you never doubt the love he has for his boys, he's constantly on the verge of snapping back at them if they disobey him once too often. Many father characters in period pieces or coming of age stories like this tend to be portrayed as one-dimensional bullies. Brad's acting however gives Mr. O'Brien a strong complexity as he wants to best for his kids, and we feel his pain and frustration as the world he believed in ends up betraying him despite his best efforts.

There's really not much acting going on in "The Tree Of Life." In the movies of Terrence Malick, the actors really have to be the characters more than just play them. This is especially the case with the child actors who all do extraordinary work. In particular, Hunter McCracken's performance as the young Jack is a revelation. Much of the movie does rest on his performance as he is our main guide through the wonderment of life to our eventual disillusionment of it. Hunter's work is so subtle and unforced, and it's impossible not to identify with what he's' going through as we've all been there ourselves.

The image of a tree always plays a large part in all of Malick's films, and it is definitely the case here. Trees grow over a long period of time, some of them for a thousand years. They can outlast us, and the extent of their branches which stretch out in all directions illustrate life's sudden twists and turns that are never easily predicted. Taking that into account, trees have more of a history than we could ever hope to have.

As a species, humans seem to barely compare to trees when you take the lifespan of one into account. Many will still be standing tall long after we're gone. So in the end, perhaps we are not the most significant life forms inhabiting planet Earth. Taking that into account makes us feel very small as a result, and it makes you wonder about the evolution of the human race.

I sincerely hope mainstream audiences will embrace "The Tree Of Life" and find it as mesmerizing as I did. It's not hard to see many being bored by it or being critical of Malick's multitude of ambition. But in a time where most Hollywood movies are greedy regurgitations of past hits and needless remakes, does it really make sense to criticize any filmmaker for being ambitious? The fact that a movie like this exists in this day and age is something to be celebrated. Unlike everything else out there, this is something that dares to be original.

"The Tree Of Life" shows director Terrence Malick to still be a master of cinema even after so many years. Unlike other filmmakers whose talents fade away with each project, he remains as vital as ever in a cinematic landscape dominated by corporate meddling. Still making movies on his terms and without studio intrusion, "The Tree Of Life" is one of the most genuinely amazing movies I have seen in sometime, and it demands to be seen more than once by anyone and everyone who is a true fan of film.

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