By Alec Marchant
Staff Writer
With a setting that spans from the beginning of time to the present, Terrence Malick’s new cinematic venture, “The Tree of Life,” is a visual splendor that is ultimately undermined by its vacant plot and character development.
Malick brings a sense of imagination to the cinema with his visual attempt at creating a film that focuses on how life came to be. However, in Malick’s half-hearted attempt to create something so monumental, the movie fails to evoke true emotions.
“The Tree of Life” is an impressionistic story that follows the family dynamic of a Texan family in the 1950s. The film begins with the childhood of young Jack (Sean Pean), the eldest son in the family. The movie skips forward and presents an older and disillusioned Jack who attempts to reconcile his broken relationship with his father (Brad Pitt) while struggling to understand the meaning of life.
First premiering at the 64th annual Cannes Film Festival in France, the film received mostly positive reviews. It was awarded the “Palme d’Or,” the most prestigious award given at the festival and possibly the most prestigious award in all of film.
Malick provides artful direction and helps to push his actors to fuel a more raw and emotional identity for his characters. Pitt delivers a powerful performance as an abusive and resentful father who tries to teach his three sons to be a person of greater strength and ambition than he was. However, Pitt’s robust portrayal of the father distances his character from the identity of the family and its struggle.
This film was memorable due to its heavily animated sequences, especially the beautifully rendered images of dinosaurs, solar systems and nature. The film has a distinct artistic look with vibrant colors and naturalistic filmmaking techniques, such as natural lighting and hand-held camerawork.
Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki demonstrates his cinematic prowess with wide-angle shots and hand-held perspectives of the world of the film.
Although the film proves itself on a visual level, it stands to improve. The characters are given small amounts of screen time, making it impossible for the actors to evoke sympathy from viewers. The family’s drama is contrived, unrealistic and contrasts the monumental significance of other events depicted in the movie.
Moreover, the first half of the drama is a headache-inducing adventure with a spastic editing style of numorous short clips spliced together. Amongst the scenes and snippets are time consuming sequences of animation that contain no information or movement of the plot and serve to bore viewers even further.
“The Tree of Life” is an artful disappointment. The film attempts to capture the creation of the universe and the meaning of life but isn’t nearly as interesting or captivating as Malick thinks.
“The Tree of Life” is rated PG-13. It is playing in limited release.and opens nation wide on July 8
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