Two Jews On The Tree Of Life

Film Review - The Tree Of Life
The Big Bang...Creation...Evolution...God...Life... Death...Family...These are the themes that Terrence Malick addresses in his brilliant new film, 'The Tree Of Life'.

In my humble opinion, this is one of the most original films in cinematic history. It is also a film that will divide people...Some will absolutely hate it, some will be angered by it and some like myself, will absolutely love it.




For almost one hour into this film none of the actors on screen speak to one another. You hear them only in voice over. Their voices bleed into the soaring classical orchestral score. They say a word, a sentence...a whisper.

We see the beautiful face of Mrs O'Brien (Jessica Chastain) Mr. O'Brien (Brad Pitt)...Their three young boys; Jack (Hunter McCracken), R.L. (Laramie Eppler) and Steve (Tye Sheridan) ...

There's the sound of the wind and the moving pictures...the sun, rustling trees, a hand, faces, a family...a life and a death. The mother cries out, 'Lord, why? Where are you?' and What are we to you?"

And then...Another symphony of sounds and the screen fills with a spectacular light show...A loud blast in the cosmos, volcanic explosions, fire and water, creation, one cell, then two...They multiply... organisms...jellyfish and the dinosaurs. Evolution...

And then we're back to the O'Brien's. They live in a small Texas town and it's the 1950"s. Mr. O'Brien is a stern, dominareering, ex military man. One minute he's happily playing with his sons, the next he explodes at them. Brad Pitt gives one of his finest performances as this complex man. We can feel the rage inside of him even when he's smiling. His wife is serene, loving, forgiving...Mrs. O'Brien is the epitome of grace...

The film moves back and forth in time. In the present, Jack (Sean Penn) is a successful, disillusioned architect. He is a lost soul in this modern world filled with metal skyscrapers. We hear snippets of his thoughts (also in voice over) He begins to recall memories from childhood. He tries to understand his complicated relationship with his father...His mother's unconditional love and his brother's untimely death. Jack is searching for the existence of faith.

What makes Jack's story so extraordinary is that it's played out within the vast beauty of the universe. His human struggles become part of the cosmos vast creative and destructive powers. Ultimately, Jack begins to sense his connection to everything that's ever existed and finally...to his own destiny.

This is a film about memory...childhood memory set against the creation of the cosmos. While I was watching 'The Tree Of Life', I kept thinking that this movie is like a poem...a beautiful, emotionally moving poem set to images that you see in the finest impressionistic paintings.

Ultimately the film is about love...How love emerges from life and life emerges from love.

'Tree Of Life' opens in theaters May 27, 2011. Don't miss it.

John and I gave it a very different bagel rating. Luckily I write the reviews and John doesn't. We all know how women love to get the last word in.

Category:

Comedy

Tags:

• Brad Pitt
• Sean Penn
• Jessica Chastain
• Terrence Mallick
• Fiona Shaw
• Tree Of Life-Movie Review
• Two Jews On Film

[twojewsonfilm]

Hi Everyone Please like twojewsonfilm on facebook Thanks so much

[MsPROOFthatGODexists]

The woman in this clip is right.....THE TREE OF LIFE WAS AMAZING!

[twojewsonfilm]

@MsPROOFthatGODexists The woman in the clip is me...Joan and she thanks you. I loved this film. Number one on my top ten list.

[frenchbullfrog]

Is this your nominee for Best Film ??

[twojewsonfilm]

@frenchbullfrog Mine yes...John's...definitely not. LOL. We'll be doing our 'Ten Best Films Of 2011' show in a few days.

[TheNoodle97]

loved this movie one of the best of the year, loved johns "inspired film-making" lol

[twojewsonfilm]

@TheNoodle97 yes, he does love those special effects. LOL

[enigma19833]

Wow, The White Stripes have really let themselves go.

[kssoukup]

love TREE OF LIFE. still think THE THIN RED LINE is Malick's best but its awesome. people, if you abandon the idea that a film needs to be strict narrative in order to be followed, you will feel differently about Malick. an impressionistic painting, a poem, the metaphysical elements, everything she said is true about malick, but the porblem people have is excepting the idea that music and image can draw out feelings as powerful as plot. give it another watch-youll see ;)

[snillocgrom]

@amxmachine I am not "twisting" anything to fit in with my moral aesthetics. That the film is meditating on the issue of Theodicy utilizing a Jobian perspective is what makes it religious in a philosophical sense. Neither it nor I are espousing Christian doctrines or values. I was merely suggesting people attempt to understand the film within the perspective of religion.

[snillocgrom]

@amxmachine the existence of evolution in no way diminishes God's relevance. But let's get back to the film. The fact remains that Malick is Christian, and his love for both science and God is attested in an interview with Brad Pitt, and obviously Malick is not a christian who subscribes to young earth creationism, and may even be a Universalist Christian.

[snillocgrom]

@amxmachine Christianity does not equate Young Earth Creationism (neither do the other abrahamic faiths). The film most certainly displays snapshots of an Old Earth origin story, a view that is embraced by mainland Christianity denominations as well as the Catholic Church. The Theory of Evolution is not contrary to the Bible. It may be contrary to the literal translation of the English translation of the first chapter of Genesis, but read the original hebrew and you get a different idea.