One thing is for certain, Terrence Malick loves visually stunning pictures. He has a number of movies (The Thin Red Line) that preceded The Tree Of Life, which followed his tradition of slow-moving movies and visually stunning cinematography.
In The Tree Of Life Malick goes overboard with semi-religious music and visual captivating imagery. Movies To Watch Tonight places this movie solidly into the Artsy Category.
For the average movie buff though, this may not be among the movies to watch tonight. Movie lovers who are artistic in temperment, will enjoy The Tree of Life. The vast remainder of movie fans will want to stay away from The Tree Of Life. This movie is certainly not for everyone.
Why Not The Tree Of Life?
Anyone who likes a strong plot with defined characters, solid dialogue, a beginning and an ending to the script and a story line they can follow, will not enjoy The Tree Of Life.
The Tree Of Life has everything from the creation of the planet and dinosaurs, to what might be deceased people aimlessly wandering a shoreline.
Terrence Malick loves sunlight, stunning visuals and grand sweeping scenes and accompanying semi-religious type music. He outdid himself in The Tree Of Life by cramming in as much of this as he could.
Again, it is visually stunning and for this reason movies to watch tonight, gives Malick 2 thumbs up for that incredible effort.
Once the movie moves past the dinosaur stage of the earth’s development, the story of the central characters are played, as best as possible, by Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain and Hunter McCracken. They do a wonderful job of trying to get the audience involved in the plot, because as everyone knows a movie without a plot is doomed to fail.
The Tree Of Life is “all over the place” with everything from a young Sean Penn being a juvenile delinquent to Brad Pitt being the sometimes on again off again religious, pragmatic father. In between there is a lot for viewers to wonder about.
There is a great line where a stranger sticks his face into the camera and utters “See you in 5 years”.
Brad Pitt is a solid actor even in a film like The Tree Of Life. He manages to get his character in sync with the tone of the movie and movies to watch tonight gives Brad 10 out of 10 for his effort. He is worth watching in this film. Jessica Chastain does her best the role given her and is wonderful to watch although she gives a much stronger performance in the movie The Help. Hunter McCracken does an excellent job of portraying a young, brooding Sean Penn. It almost feels like Sean Penn when Hunter acts as the young Sean.
One of the baby deliveries is in bright, white room with so many white attendants it reminds you of Gattaca, which is another artsy film but one that works and keeps you captivated to the screen until the end. It starred Ethan Hawke, Jude Law and Uma Thurman.
With The Tree Of Life there is lots of whispering, running around, a young Sean Penn stealing what looks like a night-gown or woman’s slip, really weird Sean Penn scenes of him continually wandering in what looks like the badlands and vague messages and suggestions about the meaning of life.
In The Tree Of Life Sean Penn often looks as lost as most of the audience.
For those who want to see The Tree Of Life, Movies To Watch Tonight doesn’t want to give the main theme of what this is all about. If we knew though that would have helped.
Mixed in are wonderful scenes that just don’t connect The Tree Of Life together, so in most places there is a lot of disjointed orientation, as the viewer is flung from what feels like Act 1 through Act 4 or the conclusion of the movie.
The Tree Of Life Cast (2011)
Brad Pitt / Mr. O’Brien
Sean Penn / Jack
Jessica Chastain / Mrs. O’Brien
Hunter McCracken / Young Jack
Laramie Eppler / R.L.
Tye Sheridan / Steve
Fiona Shaw / Grandmother
Jessica Fuselier / Guide
Nicolas Gonda / Mr. Reynolds
Will Wallace / Architect
Kelly Koonce / Father Haynes
Written and Directed by Terrence Malick
Approximate US Box Office To Oct 2011 : $54 million
Estimated Cost To Make: $32 million
How Much Of Your Life Is Gone Watching This Film 2 hours 16 minutes
(think about how you will never get this time back before watching this film. Perhaps a few episodes of Jeopardy would be better)
The Tree Of Life Summation
To sum up the thread of the movie you could say, this is the story of a family experiencing misfortune, lots of regret and wondering about life. That would be a pretty good summation of The Tree Of Life.
For those who like Artsy Films, this movie may meet your needs for an evening in front of the tube, which is part of the reason Movies To Watch Tonight does not place The Tree Of Life in the Bad Movies category.
Movies To Watch Tonight Rating – Artsy Film That Doesn’t Work
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