'The Tree of Life' -- 4 out of 5 stars

Posted to Arts & Entertainment by Abigail Geiger at 12:19 p.m., July 12, 2011

With movies like “The Thin Red Line” and “The New World”, reclusive director Terrence Malick became a director widely admired audiences, and with his latest installment, he’s sure to continue that trend as director and writer.

In “The Tree of Life”, Malick comes back armed with a meaningful plot and even more significant visuals. The main story of the film surrounds the life of a 1950’s Texan family and one of the son’s trials and tribulations of growing up and becoming a man.

Ambitiously, the film also sets out to comment on the nature of Earth and the origin of life itself—yes, Malick even managed to put dinosaurs in the film. In a 45-minute quasi-introduction to the film, the audience is thrown into an ethereal dimension of abstract lights, images of outer space and a celestial voice-over of the mother, Mrs. O’Brien (Jessica Chastain), throughout its entirety.

Introduction aside, the remaining hour and a half—the whole movie adds up to a whopping 2 hours and twenty minutes—is a beautiful commentary on the realities of family life and the legitimacy of religion. There are fights, there are heated moments, but there are also moments of happiness and joy, playing in the streets and laughing in fields.

An important part of the film to realize is that it is all in the perspective of the grown up son, Jack (Sean Penn). The film’s scenes are far from perfect or completely understandable, but that is because it is simply a collection of Jack’s memories.

Malick reflects this sense of memory onto the audience itself, connecting more strongly the viewer, the actor and the director himself. The camera perspective throughout the movie is visceral, intimate. The camera pans to the level of the children so you feel like you are running through the fields with them, and it steps back from tense moments so you feel like an onlooker, seeing the greater dark picture.

The introduction of the film has been controversial, and critics have said that the movie could have fared well if they were two separate pieces. However, the point of “The Tree of Life” is that Malick is combining the creation of life with the continuation of life, and therefore, both the introduction and main story are necessary.

In the beginning of the film, Mrs. O’Brien says in the voice-over, “There are two ways through life: the way of nature, and the way of grace. You have to choose which one you'll follow.”

It is these two things that wrestle within the children and family throughout the main story of the film, and it is the battle between these two things (‘nature’ being the father, ‘grace’ being the mother) that is the main idea of the film.

“The Tree of Life” harps on the idea of contrast. There is hope, and there disappointment; life, death; love, hate; respect, condemnation. Mrs. O’Brien has a heavenly glow to her throughout the film, and she starkly contrasts the stern and oft aggressive Mr. O’Brien (Brad Pitt).

It’s about loss of innocence, the Adam and Eve downfall of humanity amidst the perfection (or imperfection) of nature. Perhaps it is also a commentary on the constant battle between man and God. In the end, “The Tree of Life” is just like a prayer, as its voice-overs imply. It asks questions, observes and appreciates. Beyond that, the movie is as perplexed about nature and God as the average person is. In this is the autobiographical element of the film; Malick seems to make this film more personal than his others.

Brad Pitt summed up his opinion of the film after seeing it again at the Festival de Cannes.

“While we try to comfort ourselves and pillow ourselves with religion,” he said, “maybe the real peace and beauty is to be found in the unknown.”

“The Tree of Life” is a beautiful movie and its plot is equally simple and complex. What Malick intended still remains elusive, but the result is jarring and moving, and well worth the watch.