Welcome to the first installment of RAJ's weekly movie review series, where we will be reviewing one movie each week from our very own Netflix queue. As you can tell from the image to the right, we here at Real Au Jus have not yet made the switch from snail mail DVDs to Netflix's streaming/Watch Instantly service, as we are knuckle-dragging Luddites who still cling to our belief that Al Gore invented the internet with help from soul-eating warrior spirits from the deepest recesses of Hades.
We figured it would be best to kick the series off with a charming little popcorn flick, so we chose Terence Malick's epic about the history of the universe, The Tree of Life. The film is nominated for Best Picture and Best Director Oscars, and has been the darling of critics and the puzzler of many regular moviegoers.
While I feel that my true opinion of this film will require at least one or two more viewings to fully formulate, I must say that upon an initial viewing, my strongest feeling toward it is that of regret. I absolutely regret not seeing this film in a theatre. It is a visually stunning film, one that captures the natural beauty and majesty of our planet as well as any film that I can recall. The film also received an Oscar nomination for Best Cinematography (Emmanuel Lubezki), and should be a strong contender to win that category.
Since the film does not follow a very structured plot, I'm not going to spend much time dissecting the narrative or analyzing the story arc. It is an exceedingly ambitious film (some have argued it's a bit too ambitious), one that attempts to tell the story of the universe, of its creation and evolution, and how humanity fits in to such a grand equation. Malick makes a number of interesting choices in creating his grand vision. The story of Creation is told through an arresting visual sequence of astrological, geological, chemical, and biological processes, from a microscopic cellular scale to an infinite scale of space and time. There is no narration, only a subtle musical accompaniment. This sequence is a wonder to behold, and a good amount of time is devoted to it.
Were this the entire film though, it would resemble nothing more than a Nova documentary on PBS. Malick makes a wise choice by directing his focus to that of humanity in microcosm. He does so by focusing on a middle class family in 1950's Waco, Texas, details presumably inspired by his own similar childhood. The O'Brien family consists of a husband and wife (played by Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain, respectively) and their two young boys. This depiction of the family as they age and grow are presented in an abstract, free-form style, with one scene flowing directly into another (often literally flowing with the recurring imagery of curtains billowing in the breeze blowing in through open windows). Little regard is paid to time and space (and narrative logic). No matter though, as Malick's intent is to provide the viewer with an intimate look at brief moments in the lives of humans as they interact with one another. Some moments are inconsequential (gardening, attending church), while others are weighted with a profound sense of importance, especially when viewed through the eyes of the oldest son, Jack (such as when a friend drowns and when he witnesses his father berating his mother). From these scenes it is clear that Jack's father is a difficult man who demands absolute respect and obedience from his sons, and is reluctant to reward them for their compliance by providing even the smallest display of love.
The third element to the film's narrative focuses on Jack as an adult (played by Sean Penn). Jack is now a successful architect who works in a downtown high-rise, and struggling to reconcile his evidently strained relationship with his father. These scenes are rife with urban imagery, lots of shiny steel and glass which enhances the contrast between the harsh realities of Jack's adult life with the green grass and lazy oak trees of his idyllic childhood. There is one constant between these two stages of Jack's life, as the same hazy sun and rolling clouds in the sky are continually glimpsed, whether up through the branches of an oak tree or through the glass ceilings and elevators of a skyscraper.
Having only viewed the film once, I feel rather unqualified to review it at length. As the end credits rolled, I asked my lovely bride-to-be what she thought of it. Staring at the screen, still entranced and bewitched by what she had seen, she quietly said, "It was beautiful."
I didn't ask her to elaborate. Perhaps it's best to leave it at that for now.
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