Tree of Life

Now these are the times when you really really really believe that the existence of the amateur critic is threatened. How do you expect us lowly mortals to first of all sustain nearly two and a half hours of psychedilia and then understand the depth with which it was made and then write a review about it? Mind you the world seems to be raving about Tree of Life. The imdb rating is 7 on 10. But then when you go through some more research about the movie – you have to, just so that you can be sure that you are not the only person in the whole wide world who almost slept through a movie that the whole world seems to be raving about – you finally find out that you are not alone. It seems to be a movie with ratings that are poles apart. There are 9 / 10 on 10s and there are 0/1 on 10s. So either people have totally loved it or totally hated it. Phew. That was a relief. Because I was all this while thinking that I was the only one who was part of the latter group. Such a welcome relief.

The only Terrence Malick movie that I had seen before Tree of Life was one called “Thin Red Line”. In part though I must confess. And I do not remember it being psychedelic and so lateral as Tree of Life. The movie – Tree of Life that is – is littered with lines from the Bible which are whispered all through the movie and ring in your head as if it were someone speaking in your head and you so desperately want to get that person out. And then there are visuals of asteroids crashing into planets like Saturn and Jupiter to the background of arias ala 2001 a Space Odyssey – only Malick should have realized that he is not a Kubrick and Zarathustra wasn’t on his side unfortunately. After a while (not more than 30 minutes) it gets really really really irritating and you yearn for the movie to end sooner than later. Only you have to wait for nearly another 2 hours before you can make it through. I swear I caught myself sleeping at least 4 times in the 2 hours and then also almost fell asleep on the way home.

It is called as impressionist cinema by some websites. Simply put, art cinema for the likes of us. But really, Tree of Life, is not meant for the regular movie goer at all. It is meant for only those who are studying the so called “impressionist” cinema and are going through the formalities for a class project. It takes a while for one to figure out that the movie is about Jack (Sean Penn) who has been bought up by an exceptionally stern but typical father O’Brien (Brad Pitt) in the 50s. Today Jack is kind of going through his childhood days and actually trying to figure out the actual nature of the relationship that he had with his father. Malick sure knows how to make a story like that so complicated and convoluted. Avoid the movie if you aren’t into art cinema in its truest form. 1 on 10 just for the courage to put it out there.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi612735001/