The Tree of Life

Much has been said of this film, and most of things sound like they came from inattentive people. To say that this film is complicated is true, but to say that it is hard to understand is not only a different statement from "it's complicated", but also, untrue. THE TREE OF LIFE is quite straightforward, even though it's done in a fragmented way. But for a film that run 2hrs 12min, at the end of it, if I didn't know what I'd watched, I'd have been pretty disappointed in myself. Furthermore, the film is quite the spectacle, the photography in the film is outstanding, making THE TREE OF LIFE one of the best looking films ever. I fear that this strength, however, and the complex nature of the film, has prompted many to stamp the film with a clean bill of health, an A+ in filmmaking, without considering the many flaws of the film. Just because so many parts of THE TREE OF LIFE are brilliant, that does not make the film as a whole brilliant.
The film tells the supposedly semi-autobiographical story of its director, Terrence Malick. In his hometown of Waco, TX, a family grows up, and tension is astir. A father, Mr. O'Brien (Brad Pitt) treats his children sternly in the tradition of demanding nature, and a mother, Mrs. O'Brien (Jessica Chastain) treats her children with grace, attempting to protect them from penetrating forces. The film begins with the O'Brien's receiving news of their son's death. They lament, and so does their son (Sean Penn), who thinks back on his childhood in personal, fragmented memories that are dreamy and etherial.
The film then goes off on a tangent, which attempts to place the trivialities of the O'Brien family against the force of the universe. This cosmic tale begins with the big bang, trillions of galaxies, and finally earth, boiling magma, dinosaurs, and ends with the O'Brien's. Mrs. O'Brien has countless voiceovers in a whispered, pathetic voice that is at times laughable, but when contrasted with the cosmos, seems endearing. The Book of Job is referenced here (not as well as in the great Coen brother film, A SERIOUS MAN), but to the effect that the lives of the O'Brien's are trivial.
Malick then takes us back to the O'Brien children when they were children, showing them grow from infants to young boys, fighting their father, fighting each other, and becoming concerned with simple objects that are obviously personal and reminiscent to Malick. This is also a well photographed sequence, but not as strong as the others in its obvious personal nature: which feels foreign to many who haven't experienced things the way Malick has.
Finally, the living son as an adult is still lamenting, and the earth is destroyed when it is enveloped by the expanding sun. In a scene so obviously akin to 2001's last sequence, the son discovers his parents, and his brothers on a beach: the world ends, but some solace has been found.
Terrence Malick's film is an obvious work of genius when it comes to the photography, but in terms of sheer storytelling, it is a great failure. This is still not a bad film, for this is a film of ideas and of memory: not of plot or story. Images and sounds have the ability to entrance, and by the end of the film, it is not Malick's tributes that matter, but the bits of humanity that, cherrypicked, show a man working to encompass mankind. His filmmaking is flawed, occasionally bilious as he is frantic and restless, but his ideas are sound.
The Tree of Life: ★★★1/2