Review: The Tree of Life

       I don't think I've seen such ambition in a movie since Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Like 2001, The Tree of Life is bookended by seemingly unrelated, bizarre, pretentious imagery. Both movies also make tremendous jumps through time. 2001 memorably jumps from pre-historic humans to a space age 2001 AD, while The Tree of Life jumps from the big bang to dinosaurs, to the 1950s, to modern day. However, The Tree of Life is much more of an experimental art-piece rather the mostly coherent 2001, which gave us a plot involving one of film's most memorable villains in HAL 9000. The Tree of Life tries to encompass all of existence, and while it is beautifully shot and has mind-blowing sound design, it comes off as pretentious because of it's deep ambition. The film simply tries to achieve too much as a result doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

       The film begins with a mysterious, amorphous light flickering in the dark. A voiceover states that there are two paths to take in life, that of grace and that of nature. We then flash forward through time. From the darkness the universe is born, the Milky Way, and then the solar system form while voice-overs ask existential questions. On the newly formed Earth, volcanoes erupt and microbes begin to form and replicate. Sea life is born, then plants on land, then dinosaurs. An asteroid tumbles through space and strikes the Earth. We then jump to 1960s Texas. A mother, Mrs. O'Brien (Jessica Chastain) learns that her son has been killed at war overseas. We jump ahead again to modern day where we see Sean Penn, the now grown up brother of the fallen soldier apologizing over the phone to his father for an argument about his brother's death. We then jump back to 1950s Texas, where we spend most of the movie. The O'Briens are a young family consisting of three sons, a mother and a father (Brad Pitt). Mr. O'Brien is a strict authoritarian, while Mrs. O'Brien is much more gentle and loving. The two parents represent the choice between nature and grace mentioned earlier in the film. Mr. O'Brien wants his boys to be the best they can be, to make their own way in the wolrd, and not fail in the same ways that he has. Jack, Sean Penn's character as a child, become angry and resentful of his parents, keeping a tally of his father's hypocrisies and misdeeds and lashing out at his mother for allowing such behavior.The film then ends with a depiction of the afterlife where Sean Penn reunites with his family and they share an embrace.

       This film is gorgeous. I could watch it with the sound off and it would still be entertaining, except that the sound design is also amazingly well done. The depth of the noise we hear in each scene envelops the viewer and makes us feel like part of the scenery. The acting is decent, though I was surprised by how much Sean Penn is underused. Penn is one of the greatest actors of today yet his role in this movie is limited to just a handful of lines in about two or three scenes. Pitt is the star for the majority of the movie. His turn as the strict disciplinarian is very convincing. I was particularly delighted by a scene where he is teaching his sons to fight and encourages Jack to hit him. The scene echoed one of Pitt's most memorable roles as Tyler Durden in the classic Fight Club. The film struggles with structure. It's all over the place and the scenes bookending the main story seem to have little bearing on the main narrative and frankly the film could have been done without them. The beginning is particularly overlong before we get to the main story, we just watch images of stars, planets and nebulas while ethereal music plays and the voiceover asks existential questions while we just sit there wondering what we're watching and when the story will start.