Movie Review:The Tree Of Life

Director:Terrence Malick
Writer:Terrence Malick
Cast:
Brad Pitt->Mr. O'Brien
Sean Penn->Jack O'Brien
Jessica Chastain->Ms. O'Brien
Hunter McCracken->Young Jack



Where should i start?Well,first of all,I think I need to see this again.I was emotionally overwhelmed when i came out of the theatre.For the people who think this is just a philosophical film about life,they are wrong.The Tree Of Life is a deeply-emotional film.

Before the film(I saw the film during a film festival),a romanian director(Andrei Ujica) summed up Malick's history and he told us the origin of the script.Malick has studied philosophy at Harvard and he learnt german just to read a philosopher's book which he later translated.In the 80's Malick wrote a script about the basis of humanity called "Q",which hadn't been done back then because there were no resources back then to make a film so imaginative.

Malick's film is this century's "Space Odyssey"(an imaginary rejected title for this film being "1951:A Terrestrial Odyssey).It has a lot of eye-popping visuals(most of which are computer-made) which is combined with epic classical music.Also,Malick uses long-shots and has his characters pose ravishing philosophical questions in the background.And what surprised me about the film is that it didn't turn to clichees at all.

One of the problems(2 minor problems) I had with this film,was some of the acting.In my opinion,the kids were the best.Chastain fitted the role perfectly(or it seemed so),but Pitt was utterly ridiculous as the father.Not only the way he talked,but his actions were so cartoonish.And Penn.Well,I actually thought that after the 2 scenes he appeared in,near the beginning of the film,the audience will not see him again.Wrong.He appears again at the end.Here is a problem more of quantity of material featuring the character than acting.

The second problem(sort of) was Malick's storytelling bizarre technique.Sometimes,the movie just skipped to a random shot of something,stayed there for half a minute,then came back to the original shot.

What to expect from this movie?An emotional,philosophical film about life with mesmerizing shots(this is probably the best film of the year in terms of cinematography) that will overwhelm you.What will you do after this film?Probably hug all your family's main members. 9/10