It's extemely hard to say if I liked this epic or not. I enjoyed it lots, but I don't know if I liked it.
It's not very easy to explain either but I'll have a bash.
No doubt it's a masterpiece of filmmaking; highly original, absolutely stunning to look at and masterfully constructed.
It's also got some of the most interesting visual art montage elements I've EVER seen in a film.
There's a crossover here with Melancholia in its contemporary, almost documentary-style CGI of space and cosmic beauty which are just fantastic.
Malick's films are obsessed with nature and our relationship with it, and The Tree of Life is no different. There is a section of the film which breaks away from the rest of the film and just focuses on many beautiful spectacles of the natural world which are both breathtakingly serene and volatile.
Some of the nature documentary-style footage seems like all it's missing is Sir David Attenborough's soft dulcet tones.
A modern twist see's Malick transferring this technique to the urban city landscape, with no less calculated beauty and awe inspiring shots.
Narratively it is quite strange, surrounding the life and death of a young boy, and how his family cope with the grief of his death and his life. It starts with death and parental grief and then goes into the family melodrama dynamic, showing the boy growing up around his two brothers and his parents.
It takes quite a while to set itself into a narrative groove and there are many elements which distort the conventional spacio-temporal journey, including many whispery voiceovers, multiple perspectives and some strange shots where there seems to be a flash of an object entered into shot, only to be taken away instantaneously, like it was never there.
Elements of montage are used and reinforces a very surreal and dream-like quality, which plays on the themes of memory and grief.
It's construction is one of the most beautiful things about it, 5 editors were needed as it has a very complex web of shots and angles, all tied together perfectly, jumping around but managing to give an inane clarity and fantasy to the fairly dry philosophical, existential and spiritual subject matter.
I really don't know what else to say about The Tree of Life. I found it a bit too emotionally laden for me to be absorbed. It's very reflexive and sad also, which can get a bit much at times.
It almost seems like it suffers from a 'burden of representation' in that it's trying to fit way too much in, but the surreal, non-conventional structure lightens this, as it seems to trancend reaching any sort of set out catharsis. Just like lyf m8.
Stunning film, really interesting and a cinematographers dream.
I'm gonna give it a 8.5/10 'cause to be honest it still has me thinking about it. Strong.
Trailer:
Cal x
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