Review: The Tree of Life

Seen 4/17/15

3.5/4

It would be accurate to call this film a cinematic poem, or a meditation. It doesn't follow the conventions of film very closely, making for a fantastically original and tantalizing experience. The first hour or so is like a revolution-- a gorgeous piece of art, painted by a genius. That genius would be Terrence Malick. It involves ethereal reflections on death, grief and God's apparent absence from the happenings of our world. The end of this section spirals into a breathtaking display of humanity's place in the universe next to the awesome and raging power of God. After about an hour, the film focuses on the family it had previously only shown in sweeping philosophical abstractions. It is a family in small-town Texas, around the '50s or '60s, with a few boys, a soft and caring mother, and a menacingly authoritarian father. The whole family is built around a fear for displeasing him, and what's probably the point of this section is to show the effects that has on the growth of his eldest boy.
After this relatively slow section (it's the movie's low-point), it flies back into its human-nature meditation-poetry. It would be interesting to watch the movie again and try not to cut it into three sections, but rather to fully integrate them all into one cohesive picture. I do believe that this film is cohesive and coherent--- it's not just visual rambling. The opening shot is a passage from Job, who is punished arbitrarily, despite his faithfulness, and doubts God because of it. God responds with an onslaught of accusations, the one shown in this movie being along the lines of 'where were you when I formed the Earth, and all the angels were singing my name?'. This opening passage reveals for the movie the theme of humanity's ant-like existence against the size and might of God, and also the existential question of how divine punishment and praise can be distributed arbitrarily.
I call the film a poem because of its excessive imagery, included not for the sake of plot or with any rational connection, but as the abstract images and emotions that seem to surround a theme. This is like what poets do in their writing.
I call it a meditation because it has some clear themes, but Malick explores them not by writing a film that sits cleanly within them. He doesn't cheat. Rather, I think he has some ideas about humanity and God, and so he sets up the ideas in the first part and then paints an objective picture of a family to see whether or not the ideas correspond to reality. It is a passive and objective filming, with some ideas in mind, so it is something like a meditation.
The film is beautiful and powerful-- watching it is an experience rich with awe and amazement. There may be no other film which explores philosophical themes in such uniquely poetic terms, and so for all its seemingly aimless story, I call The Tree of Life an excellent movie.