Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life is a movie with an ample ambition to tell a beautiful story yet suffer from a terrible storytelling plot. It is audacious, respectable,wonderful but i admit had a hard time to really enjoy the movie due to it documentary-like storytelling style and after some time it is easy to lose grip on the narative and resort to tiresome. It is as if you are watching National Geographic mixed with Bible study.
At its core, the movie actually tries to provoke audiences' awareness of existence starting from the genesis of the universe and the evolution of life on earth. There are consistently displayed images resemble swirling galaxy, the beginning of living creature, dinosaurs, the evolution of mankind until it focus on a small family in a 1950s midwestern of America. Where a father (Brad Pitt), the mother (Jessica Chastain) and their children become the central focus of the movie. There are times when i started to think that it does not really happen on earth as much as it is set on heaven where angels flocking around ubiquitously in Chastian's character. The heavenly musical score is a strong support to my theory.
Like Malick's Thin Red Line (1998), it constantly challenge your mind, your concentration and most of all your patience. This movie does not have a beginning or an end. You can just barge in the cinema in the middle or walk out 20 minutes after it started (like some audiences in the theatre where i saw this movie). It is in this very department, the movie lacks the core ingredient to become a masterpiece. What a misopportunity!. But what i like the most about this movie is that it really does provoke my conscience and awareness of the nature of existence. I could not sleep hours after seeing this picture contemplating about existence, life and people around me. The greatness about a film is always the impact it has on me long after i left the theatre, and The Tree of Life really provides me that satisfaction. It is a movie of art NOT of entertainment.
Tree of Life is rated PG-13 for some thematic material . Three and a Quarter Stars out of Four (B+)