Acclaimed director Terrence Malick’s (The Thin Red Line, Days of
Heaven, Badlands) two hour and twenty minute long coming of age story about two
brothers growing up in 1950’s Texas and their difficult family relationships
has only a cursory connection with what mystics and qabalists of the Jewish
mystery schools would consider The Tree of Life.
It is instead a slow,
meandering pseudo-art film realized with subtle, subjective cinematography from
Emmanuel Lubezki (Gravity, The Revenant, Birdman) and spare, period production
design from Jack Fisk (The Revenant, There Will be Blood and David Lynch’s
Mulholland Drive) lending it a sense of mood, personal drama and a kind of
nostalgic self-importance.
Despite having very
little to do with anybody’s rendition of The Tree Of Life (as a religious or
philosophical construct, at least), Malick delivers a genuinely sublime
experience that includes deep forays into the characters’ imaginations and formative
experiences. These include flashbacks and some epic sequences of cosmic and
prehistoric events that give texture to the existential treatment of the
narrative in a way that superficially appears to deliver meaning. Make no
mistake, and this is an illusion.
The plot is an insipid
invitation to stay well within your safety zone. The film does nothing truly
experimental that has not been done before, better and more meaningfully in a
short film or an actual art film. Hollywood congratulates itself while
reinforcing the white, middle-class, mainstream status quo.
Touted as a drama/fantasy,
this fairly mundane popular art film is low-key. Using its restrained, slow and
somewhat naturalistic style, it tries to illicit feelings of childhood and
convey a kind of innocence and honesty that has ‘Oscar bait’ written all over
it. Purportedly biographical, the film is not especially clever, not incredibly
insightful and not especially interesting. It is, however, undeniably beautiful
and well-shot.
Apparently, it worked
as intended, and in 2011 it scooped the Palme d’or at Cannes and then went on
to be nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director and Best
Cinematography. The movie, The Tree of Life is beautiful for no reason other
than charming and inoffensive.
No comments:
Post a Comment