To give a synopsis of this movie in the simplest way possible: The Tree of Life is an art film that attempts to tackle human nature in the broadest possible sense, watch the trailer above, it really gives the vibe. It begins with Jessica Chastain talking about as people develop, they either follow the beautiful path to grace, or the stern path of nature. The exposition to this film can effectively sum up how I feel about the rest of the movie. The beginning is a bit confusing as it is extremely nonlinear,
but what I got is the main characters are Brad Pitt and Chastain are husband and wife in the 1950's, and they lose a son. Their oldest son (Sean Penn) is seen in the present day and he is confused about life (Nothing is explicitly shown). This is followed by, as Mr. D put it, a Discovery Channel documentary of the birth of the universe, earth, and a section with dinosaurs. The section with the birth of the universe is almost awe-inspiringly beautiful with the help of a fantastic score throughout, but it drags on for far too long. I have this voice for when I think someone is being pretentious and artsy, and I would use the voice here. It's something like "Ooohooo look at me I'm so artsy, I, like, get humanity and how we are so. like, small and the big bang was so big and pretty ooohooo". The dinosaur section's message is very obvious in its relation to human nature and a bit strange as CGI dinosaurs are just so out of place with the otherwise fantastically done visuals. But then the story of the parents goes back to when they first have children, and I was in tears at how well raw emotion was captured without much dialogue. It was all excellent music, and absolutely suburb cinematography (I have come to the conclusion that Emmanuel Lubezki is a master at his trade).
The film continues to have breath-taking visuals, and excellent music as the story continues. The raw emotional moments are powerful sometimes, but other times lackluster, especially the ending. As the main characters' children grow up, we see them form their ways towards nature or grace, taking after their parents. Brad Pitt is nature, as he is a stern ex-military. Jessica Chastain is grace, she is elegant and beautiful. It seems to be obvious in which one Mallick thinks is the better path, and I say that may be the films message or a flawed approach to the storytelling. The performances are fine, but the child actor who plays Jack, the son who is most conflicted in his path towards grace/nature, is done extremely well as the viewer can really sense his inner conflict. I rarely see a child actor perform this well. When the film comes to a close, it comes back to present day Jack, played by Sean Penn. A surrealist sequence brings everything and everyone together for a nice conclusion, but it felt weak and kind of dumb and pretentious, but that might be on top of the fact that the film was poorly paced and I wanted it to end. It tackles almost everything Interstellar tried to do in the exploration of human nature, and the parts it does well are amazing. Then again, even the bad parts are still better than Interstellar (Sorry, Nolan. Good try, though.).
This is still a beautiful art film, especially for a film class (wink, wink), and I would really like to discuss it further. Parts of it truly moved me. I recommend anyone who is well-rounded in cinema watch this film, and decide for themselves where they are on the love/hate spectrum. I do not usually enjoy or even try to watch experimental cinema, but I thoroughly enjoyed this piece. I give The Tree of Life
8/10
Sexy Steadicams
Mr D has mentioned this movie maybe once or twice a week so it's definitely been on my list. I wasn't quite sure if I wanted to watch it because it might have been a little too artsy for my taste. But you've broken it down as a really good film, so I'll see it regardless. Also interested in how "sexy" these Steadycams are.
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