The Tree of Life

Time moves differently in a Terrence Malick movie and never more than it does in his latest feature (his fifth in a career that's lasted over forty years, itself a statement on time). The Tree of Life is Malick's fascinating exploration of spiritual experience, and when you factor in his elastic interpretation of timelines, it makes sense that the movie stretches its narrative canvas as far back as is humanly and cinematically possible. At the core is a tale of a family loving and living in a small Texas town in the 1950s. There's the hard-nosed father (Brad Pitt), the gentle mother (Jessica Chastain), and their three boys in between (Hunter McCracken, Tye Sheridan, Laramie Eppler). McCracken's character grows up to be Sean Penn, whose minimal screen time shows him looking to the past in order to make sense of his current malaise.

Such a basic synopsis suggests simplistic material, but Malick's handling of the narrative pieces is well beyond the realm of conventional. He strips the story down to bare sensations and threads of memory and finds little use for a standard structure. The boys run and play, then run and play some more, while their mother fixes a wound or smiles lovingly and their father teaches them a lesson about manners or teaches them how to fight. Such scenes flow into each other carefully as a bigger picture about growing up begins to form. These moments of young boys and helpful mothers and stringent fathers are often limited to the neighbourhood this family calls home and the constant repetition of location is fondly used to tie the breadth of experiences to the children.

The camera occasionally captures an exchange between adults without any children nearby, but the majority of the small town moments are painted from the perspective of the kids. From camera angles to chosen activities (somersaulting, ball throwing, tree climbing), the onscreen experiences tend to favour a youthful journey. Malick is crafting his own brand of nostalgic Americana that feels wholly personal and deeply rooted. But this represents only part of the sprawling canvas that is The Tree of Life, since Malick wishes to take his examination of religious symbolism and soothing spirituality to ever loftier heights. And then, of course, there is his bold bending of time tied to it all.

Since the movie opens with a later event that triggers the memories of the past, Malick decides early on to take us back to the start of the story, where the family's journey in the small town really began. But he takes this narrative rewinding quite literally and actually takes us all the way back to the very beginning of time. Suddenly, we're in the midst of no less than the creation of the universe and this portion of the movie is easily the best and most ambitious chapter of the whole cinematic experience. The imagery here is among the most breathtaking I have ever seen and the pictures of planets and meteors and galaxies are so stunning that they instantly ingrained themselves in my own memory.

Included in this unforgettable sequence are a few images of early marine life, followed by a brief glimpse of some dinosaurs locating a balance similar to the one the children will seek some sixty-five million years later. As a lifelong dinosaur fanatic, the very thought of Malick-directed dinos is almost entirely overwhelming for me. I cannot begin to express my adoration for the short moments these creatures are on screen, so much did I love watching them in the midst of such ambition and imagination. A shot of a plesiosaur (a favourite prehistoric being of mine and ripe for realization through committed CGI) remains my most beloved single image of this entire movie.

The creation sequence is a masterpiece on its own, but almost to a fault. It's so good that it makes the human experience in the small town pale in comparison. Malick's desire to touch God, to make sense of Heaven, to find peace between grace and nature, elevates certain portions of the movie, while leaving the family's story (the one that dominates much of the narrative) to reside in pleasant, though not entirely satisfying territory. This isn't to say that the family isn't fun to watch, since the performances are all strong enough to matter. But I must admit an emotional disconnect I experienced and could not overcome. I struggled to relate to the family as a whole and as individuals, which hampered my overall engagement.

As is often the case in Malick's movies, the characters are not the most interesting inhabitants of the narrative and the same applies here to The Tree of Life. The kids are all very good, but their arcs are either obvious or non-existent, while the parents are little more than collections of traits gathered from the era. Pitt and Chastain deliver solid performances nonetheless and their lack of development at least makes sense when the child's perspective that flows through the movie is taken into consideration. So when Malick settles into the family's way of life (a combination of adventures, discoveries, and discipline), it feels absolutely authentic and it pulses with warm-hearted nostalgia, but it still left me feeling a little cold.

Even with these complaints of mine, The Tree of Life remains a grand movie that will likely consume my thoughts for quite a while. My lack of connection to the family weakens my emotional response to the film, but certain specific chunks of the entire experience survive so eloquently that it becomes impossible for me to ignore the complexities of the movie's shifting impact. Malick is searching for beauty in all things (it's certainly present in birth, but can it also be present in death?) and arguing that love is the true key to living. With cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (whose talent appears to be boundless) at his side, Malick achieves his search for beauty with glorious results. With his own poetic sensibilities at work here, Malick shares his thoughts on love and life with enough passion to fill his entire filmography. The Tree of Life is full of love and even if I respond more to specific branches than to the available whole, I remain very thankful that such a collection of thoughts and images and dinosaurs has been brought to life, especially by someone who is so clearly fascinated by creation.