I love the films of Terrence Malick (especially Badlands) and my expectations were racing when I saw this long awaited film at the Barbican Cinema shortly after it's release last summer. Now the audiences at the Barbican are not your blockbusting popcorn and nacho munching variety, and true to form they sat in complete attentive silence throughout the entire film primed no doubt like me with various articles and reviews they'd already read in the quality press. It is a demanding film, somewhat long (133 minutes), both grandiose and at times so painfully intimate and so private one feels almost like a voyeur. It was hard to read the silence, were people in a state of awe or were they simply bored, or perplexed?
The Tree of Life is unashamedly spiritual in it's vision, religious even and begins with a beautifully poetic quotation from the bible that sets the tone for the rest of the film:
Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?..
When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Job 30:4.7
This reference is key, we are being invited to remember, to consider how we were in the very beginning, we are about to enter a state of reverie, Malick's poetic contemplative exploration of a Blakean world of lost innocence and experience, a requiem.In the first section of the movie we see a mother, the beautiful Jessica Chastain (a Madonna archetype, who is filmed so lovingly I suspect Malick adores her every bit of much as Derek Jarman adored/venerated Tilda Swinton) receiving news every mother must dread, the news of the death of a child, in this case her nineteen year old son, one of three boys. The beautifully filmed scenes that follow are some of the most moving depictions of grief and bereavement on film. As the absent father (Brad Pitt) who's away on a business trip hears the news on long distance telephone a funereal bell tolls in the background. (Like all Malick films this one has incredibly rich soundtrack; not just beautifully poignant classical music but found sounds which adds to the films intensity. Its suggested you play the DVD loud for optimal effect). We see neighbours offering their awkward condolences to the family; 'The pain it will pass in time' and harsh truths; 'life goes on, people pass along, nothing stays the same'.
Moving forward in time and we see a besuited bewildered Sean Penn as the older son trapped in a souless corporate office environment, it could be Manhattan or Canary Wharf, a mammon of glass, steel and mirror, with just a brief glimpse of nature, a solitary tree stranded in a plaza. In a voiceover we hear Penn lament 'the worlds gone to the dogs, people are getting greedy, getting worse'. Poor Sean-its not clear if the puzzled expression on his face is acted or a genuine reflection of his emotions as an actor wondering what the hell he's doing in the movie and whether the footage will be used or end up on the cutting room floor. This movie features 'stars' but Malicks way of working is notoriously freeform and requires actors to put their egos to one side and trust in the project, to trust that a certain kind of magic will be found in the moment; the smallest of unscripted gestures, happy accidents (like the chance arrival of a butterfly), the glow of candlelight, the dance of light and shadow. The DVD covers boasts 'Brad Pitt gives the strongest performance of his career'. I dont know about that but he certainly seems willing to take risks with his career and this is another intelligent performance proving once again that he is so much more than a pretty face.
Another leap in time, into the past, and we are at the very beginnings of life, the big bang, creation, call it what you will, fantastically rendered in dazzling non CGI special effects by the same guy who did the SFX for 2001 Space Odyssey. At this point Malick lost a lot of his critics, but I think these scenes are amazing and you've got to hand it to him this is film making at its boldest and most ambitious. This section of the movie includes a much talked about/derided scene with dinosaurs where a large predatory dinosaur places it's foot on the head of a smaller dinosaur. We expect to see the animal crush the other but instead it seems to lose interest and moves on, sparing its life. An obvious point perhaps but Malick seems to be saying we have a choice, we can choose to be destructive or not. We then leave the womb of creation and are back with Jessica Chastain giving birth.
What follows is a series of beautifully filmed intimate vignettes from the young boys childood, we see them struggling with their authoritarian father, we see them playing, exploring the world around them, testing its boundaries, getting into trouble, discovering talents and envious attacks motivated by sibling rivalry. Inevitably this stirs memories of ones own childhood. This may all sound rather prosaic but Malick has a great eye for the numinous, and this section of the movie is as much about lightness and darkness, both real and metaphorical. The photography is breathtakingly beautiful, though I think there is an edge here. Malick seems to be saying open your eyes, LOOK see the beauty around you that's in everything, and if you start to really open to this movie it can feel quite overwhelming. In one touching scene Pitt/ the father (a tragic Willy Loman-like figure) breaks down in remorse 'I wanted to be loved cause I was great, a Big Man. Look... the glory around...trees, birds... I dishonoured it all and didn't notice the glory'.
Some critics disliked the Tree of Life because they found it too preachy, over-thought, pretentious even. Personally I don't feel this way. Yes it is in a way an illustrated sermon, it is about lost moral compass. It's sad and melancholic. At one level it's about death and bereavement in a family but at a much deeper level its about the death of knowing our true interconnectedness. In the parlance of Core Process Psychotherapy you could say the film is about the loss of connection with being and source, the loss of faith in the basic goodness in the world and brilliant sanity, how we forget to see the beauty in everything and forget to listen to the heartbeat of what is most precious in each moment of life. The films message is clear, it is I think the same as the Buddha's;
WAKE-UP!
'There are two ways in this life; the way of nature, and the way of grace.
Chose which one you will follow.
Grace doesn't try to please itself, accepts being slighted, forgotten, disliked, accepts insults and injuries.
Nature only wants to please itself. It likes to lord it over them, to have its own way. It finds reasons to be unhappy when all the world around it is shining and love is smiling through all things'.
I haven't discussed the film's controversial ending but would like to conclude this review with another quote from the film:
'No-one who loves the way of grace ever comes to a bad end'
