Movies: The Tree of Life

Score: **** out of *****

Long Story Short: An unconventional film, to say the least, The Tree of Life is a good solid film at its core but suffers from excessiveness. The soundtrack is amazing, and serves to lift the narrative-less focus on an average middle-class family. The cast is quite good and convincing but it's just too long. With little dialogue and no plot, slower parts drag interminably, weighing down some powerful moments found elsewhere.

All done with summer blockbusters now. The film reviewed here is about as far from those summer movies as possible. Because of that, I'm not sure how good of a review I'll be able to write, but I'll do my best. It also doesn't help that it's now been a little while since I've seen it, but that's what Wikipedia is for. The Tree of Life was directed by Terrence Malick (The Thin Red Line) and stars Brad Pitt and Sean Penn. As a quick aside, it was rather amusing to see several young (as in middle or high school) girls watch this movie when I did, obviously drawn by Pitt. I don't think they enjoyed it very much.

This will be a rather different plot summary, since, well, there isn't much of a plot, but I'll go over generally what "happens" in the movie. First, we are introduced, through music and a few spare narrative lines, to an average family (1950s? 60s?) grieving the death of one of their three young boys. This is followed immediately by one of the boys, Jack, (Penn), now full grown, thinking about his childhood while he wearily surveys his business surroundings. Next, we are taken through, essentially a journey from the beginning of the universe through the earliest life forms to the time of the dinosaurs during a fifteen or twenty minute interlude.

Next, we see Jack being born, and his parents' joy over having and raising a son. The other two boys quickly follow, and the film settles into its main chronological period, with the boys in adolescence. The family is middle-class, living in the suburbs of Waco, Texas, and what we see here on out is basically the progression of their normal lives. The main themes are the dual nature of the father (Pitt), who clearly loves his family but is nevertheless often strict and harsh. The mother (Chastain) is fairly passive but provides the foundation of the family. The boys act pretty much like boys, getting into trouble, developing relationships amongst each other as brothers. This main part ends when the father loses his job and the family is forced to move away. Finally, the movie ends with a strange, surely metaphorical series of scenes based around the older Jack (Penn) walking on a beach with his family who are all the ages that they were when he was as a teenager.

Brad Pitt is obviously the big name in this film. And he does do quite a good, convincing job as an everyday dad, with faults like a quick temper, but also a deep love for his sons. His acting lends the film a good chunk of its credibility and impact of showing what is a pretty average family. Penn is the next biggest name, but he really doesn't do much. I don't think he says a dozen words total. He just gives pensive, concerned, or wistful looks and serves basically as a symbol more than a character. His younger counterpart, Hunter McCracken, who probably gets the most screen time in the whole film, does a very good job of conveying a variety of moods despite the lack of much dialogue. Jessica Chastain as the mother is also very effective. Those three - McCracken, Pitt, and Chastain - give great performances that hold up the director's narrative-less film.

Well, there's no action or comedy to talk about in this film, so I'll bring up some things that didn't get mentioned in the film summary. First I want to say, this film has one of the best soundtracks of any film I've seen. I think it's about half original music and half classical selections; the former for general mood setting and the latter for terrific emotional swells. It truly elevates the film dramatically (literally and figuratively). Next, there is a lot of kind of random imagery in the filming - particularly at the beginning and the end, as well as the scientific interlude itself obviously. I guess you could sift through them for symbolism but I'm not interested in doing that. It's not overdone, anyway, and the interlude is spectacular at times, if a touch slow. As I mentioned, there really isn't a plot to the film. The acting work is good enough that it doesn't suffer too badly from this.

***

After seeing this film, I wasn't sure what to think. It is so different from anything else I've seen recently, it was hard to process. Looking at the film as a whole, there are certainly some powerful parts - always enhanced by the outstanding soundtrack - and it sheds light on some aspects of life in interesting ways. The biggest down side of the film is that it is considerably too long. The second half is the biggest culprit here; there is just scene after scene after scene of Jack and his brothers messing around like adolescent boys do. In my opinion, there is no point to it. The director wanted to show normal life, fine. But there came a point when I wanted to yell at the screen "do something, already!" The general lack of dialogue is in line with the film's theme, but during the slow, repetitive parts it just worsens the boredom. Sean Penn was also basically unnecessary, except for the very last part on the beach. A unique, good movie that could've been significantly better had a good editor chopped off a lot of the fat hanging around the important parts.