I finally got to see Terrence Malick’s Tree Of Life and it was well worth waiting for. I only wish I could have seen it on a big Imax screen rather than on my humble laptop. It was still awesome in the true sense of the word.
It’s so complex and multi-faceted that any summary of the plot or speculation about meaning will fail to do it justice. It is a movie to be experienced rather than deconstructed. Still, I can’t resist putting down some of my impressions.
The voiceover by Mrs O’Brien (Jessica Chastain) at the start affirms that people must choose the way of nature or a way of grace.
Her stern husband, played brilliantly by Brad Pitt, seems to represent to harshest aspects of the path of nature. He’s a man who wants to be in control of his own destiny and rules over his three sons with a hard patriarchal force. His belief that you have to be cruel to be kind and often veers off course so that at times he is also cruel to be cruel. Inevitably, his oldest child Jack (Hunter McCracken/Sean Penn) rebels against this authority.
The mother is the nurturing figure (grace). In one scene, while playing with the boys outdoors she looks to the sky and says “that’s where God lives”. This simple trust that the family are being watched over by a benevolent being and governed by an unseen hand is one that is implicitly or explicitly questioned in the movie. Continue reading
