By Dan Little
Every once in awhile a film comes along that defies easy explanation and categorization, and for Malick that seems to be every time he releases a film. Any viewer of Malick's work will tell you that explaining his narratives do no justice for the film experience he presents. His work falls closer to that poetry or a symphony than to filmmaking as most understand it. This notion has never been more true than with Tree of Life.
As the title of the film says, this is a film about life. It is about life big and small. Big bang to armageddon, birth to death. Tree of Life presents parallel narratives about the beginning of the universe in compliment to the every day life of a family in the 1950s. The film plays out in classic Malick form with very little dialogue and enormous amounts of internal monologue that plays like the diary of Sara Teasdale. These internal monologues are Malick's way of exploring some pretty deep concepts and allow us to peak into the inner psyches of his characters, but even that word "character" is hard to use when discussing Malick. His films contain people, but they are no so much character as they are ideas embodied. Brad Pitt plays a harsh patriarch, but more truly he is meant to be Nature. Jessica Chastain, who was so effervescent in The Help, plays a strong and noble mother protective of her boys, but really she is Grace. The oldest boy, played in youth by Hunter McCracken and in adulthood by Sean Penn, becomes the protagonist of sorts due to his identity as the audience, the layperson, seeking out which path we will walk in life, that of Grace or that of Nature. What makes the film so beautiful isn't so much this identifiable journey, as much as its conceit that neither path is wholly justified on its own. One must walk down both paths in life, nature to gain strength and will, and grace to receive love and compassion.
So Tree of Life has a beautiful story and concept with superb execution, but I would be lying if I didn't say the true stars of the film are the visuals. Malick works again with Emmanuel Lubezki to capture some breathtaking shots. Lubezki consistently tops most others in the biz with his unconventional style. He worked on Malick's previous effort, The New World, as well as Children of Men, a film he was robbed for when the Academy gave away their award to Pan's Labyrinth. Yet here Lubezki shows what he's really got. Every moment of the film is lush, beautiful, full of delight. You could pause this film at any moment, print the still and frame it, it is that beautiful. This in combination with Malicks direction, the music, and the grand ambition of the film make it one of the most sweeping, fascinating, occasionally frustrating, but always dazzling films of the year. It earned the Palme D'or at Cannes this year, an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, and now a place on my year end top 10 list.
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