The Tree of Life

Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life is a hugely ambitious picture that not only deals with a family’s life here on earth, but the creation of our own and the beiiefs, religious or secular,  we grasp as the clear and definite truth.  The scope of Malick’s film is transcendental to our culture.

·      The film begins a child’s death and a family’s struggle to grasp this grievous concept.  We see them look back at life and how their relationships with one another has grown or decreased over the years.  The family is upheld by two parents.  The mother represents Grace, the kind and loving side of life, while the father represents Nature, the mentality that you must get ahead and do whatever you can to survive in this dog eat dog world of ours.  We see the children having to decide what side of life they want.  The main character, Jack, struggles with these natures.  He does not know which one to take hold of.  The film jumps from his childhood to present times, where we see him feeling at fault for his brother’s death, wanting clarity on his life, wanting peace that will make him whole.  The film also looks at humanity as a whole: where we started, where we are in the universe, what are we to God and the cosmos.  Yet Malick creates this sense of humanity.  We see and feel the emotions these characters go through.  Memories of your childhood come back to you and make you reminisce about the good old days. Yet the scope of this film is much grander and greater than just a family story.

o   Tree of Life,  in this larger scope,  is an oddity to modern films. It grasps both a Chrsitian and secular perspective on life and the universe.  It asks questions people in the world ask everyday: Why am I here?  Where is God when trouble screams in our face during every flicker of the television set.  Who am I an the universe?

o   Malick’s vision doesn’t answer these questions, he only asks the viewer to ponder them marveling at the vastness of the universe, and how we are merely a very small part of it. Malick also leaves an opening to religion.  There is no specific mention of a deity or god of any kind, but he mentions through his shot selection that  there a force beyond our human condition, something greater than we can querie, something in control of it all.

Malick’s film may seem slow and deliberate, but to those who wait, an experience of abstract storytelling and metamorphical delicacies are in store.  The Tree of Life is one of this year’s most intriguing and innovative film.