It is impossible to overstate the gift that is life. For as insignificant or alone as we may feel on this planet, knowing our own humanity provides us with a fresh perspective on our existence. You feel the wind on your face. That is a miraculous thing. You smell the air and feel the sunlight. These too are minor miracles. This may sound an odd way to begin a review, but Terrence Malick's metaphysical masterpiece does stop you in your tracks and make you try to sense every molecule around you, to feel life and your place in it. Alternatively, it will make you want to punch a wall, or possibly demand your money back. Truth be told, this is not an easy film to like. It is virtually dialogue free, very little actually happens and its subject material swings wildly between the surreal, extraordinary and mundane. Many people did not like it when I went to see it. At least ten people walked out during the course of the film, making snarky comments as they left. Not all of you will like it, and the reasons for liking and disliking this film are pretty much the same thing. The truth is that giving up on Tree of Life part way through just ruins the experience. You have to see all of it to get perspective.
The curious thing is that I HATE art films. I hate their self-importance, their bleakness and determination to make you suffer their bullshit because 'hey, that's life, deal with it', as if somehow it's your fault you chose to watch the film and your non-plussed reaction is simply because 'you're just, like, too obtuse man'. Quirky is a further thing I do not suffer, particularly those cute-li'l American indie films that are just so gosh-darn quirky, and feature stupid characters who do not exist in real life anywhere and are yet supported by legions of people who claim that IS actually what life is like. Yes, I AM talking about 500 Days of Summer, every turgid, stupid and quirky moment of it. While I will profess to generally preferring intelligent films, at least dumb films sometimes know what they are and revel in creating something richly textured instead of cack-handedly striving to drive a message into your brain like a nail in your skull (Did you know Crash was about racism by the way?). There is no reason whatsoever I should like Tree of Life. Nearly every audible line is done in a whisper for crying out loud, and even then some of the lines are whispered with such ethereal intent you honestly cannot understand what is being said. Despite all this and despite my reservations, I came away stupefied, amazed, infuriated and perplexed and only realized after a beer and a good night's sleep that the film I had watched was something extraordinary. At times yes, it drags and I was desperate sometimes for it to 'get on with it', as the cast of Monty Python and the Holy Grail would have it but the film is relaxed in its pace and its choice to do so.
What Tree of Life managed to do was produce a strange, non-linear narrative of a childhood, as remembered by Sean Penn. The story is that Sean Penn's character is an architect, and on the anniversary of his brother's death contemplates the life he had with his brother, the love they shared and how he was torn between his mother and his father and their very different approaches to life. His father, played with surprising dexterity by a very toned down Brad Pitt, was a disciplinarian who had specific rules and insisted the children call him 'father' as opposed to 'dad'. His mother was a free spirit, a woman who embraced nature and freedom, and yet was irresponsible in this approach to looking after her children, leading the father to overcompensating heavily in the discipline of their daily lives. This is all framed in a cosmic backdrop, the perspective sometimes coming off of this family and their lives to the universe itself. At one point, the film goes away from the memories of Jack (Sean Penn) and decides to recap the creation of planet earth for us, taking us from the tempestuous birth of our planet and through the creation of life itself, even showing us a few rather perplexed looking dinosaurs en route. Now I admit that the idea of switching from 1950s small-town America to the creation of the universe is a little jarring, but once the film is over, you realize what you were being shown. Young Jack (the insanely named Hunter McCracken) sees that the innocence of life he experienced as a very young child is a fragile thing, and starts to realize how life isn't all dancing and giggles. Yet as his father points out, the will to survive and persist in life is essential, or you will fall by the wayside. This is why we see so much of life on a grand scale, reminding us that though life can be hard, grace exists in many forms and if we persist, we can ultimately find solace in this. That although people can die, others are born and the world, though sometimes cruel, is a mind-boggling system of miracles, determination and unbelievably fortuitous chance.
It also shows a very balanced view of family life. Traditionally, the mothers are all wonderfully tenderhearted people and the fathers are borderline psychotic automatons of rage and discipline. While these facets do exist, we see their downsides; Brad Pitt is never portrayed with any sympathy, for example. He goes too far, and disciplines the children too much and too often, and yet the mother for all her love, does not discipline them enough. Young Jack is disappointed by their weaknesses, realizing that life is not perfect and we are forced to embrace what we have so that we can achieve greater things. He learns his greatest life lessons from both his mother and father, coming to realize as an adult that he learned will from his father, and love from his mother. Jack also learns to bury the past and embrace what you were, what you are and what you can still become. In the beauty of the film we start seeing meaning in every gesture, every act and every natural wonder we see, and start relating it to the film as a whole. It collages together like a painting, and yet is more than merely the sum of its parts. While I have analyzed it pretty in depth, you have to realize just how damned difficult it is to sum up Tree of Life. High concept this film is not. It is a film of staggering ambition with some tear-inducingly beautiful music chosen to accompany this strange and yet beguiling symphony to life. Is there a God? What is Life all about? We create our own destiny. That is ultimately what makes this film soar; that there is no specific message, but it does enhance your own appreciation of what you are and what is around you, and the delicacy of what you carry in your soul. That has to mean something at least.
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