THE TREE OF LIFE 3.0***



This is a simple story of a Texas family in the 1950s. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father (Brad Pitt). Jack (played as an adult by Sean Penn) finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith.

This film is presented in 4 distinct acts and the acts are very disjointed, and although they are woven together by somewhat obscure common elements, the experience can still be very disorienting and confusing. .

. The film begins with a peek into the life of a 1950s American family that suffers a tragedy. It leaps forward and back in time, setting up the individual characters and their roles in the drama. Though presented in a very fragmented way, this part should be easy enough to follow.. The next sequence, lasting about 20 minutes, is a very impressionistic journey through space, time and evolution that depicts the creation of Earth, the beginnings of life, the era of the dinosaurs, and the events leading to the rise of man. Although this sequence is awesome in its beauty and enjoyable enough on its own rights, it feels like it belongs more as part of a History Channel/Discovery Channel documentary than as a cohesive segment of The Tree of Life. It's somewhat reminiscent of the "acid trip sequence" at the end of "2001". After that, we return to the 1950s. This sequence makes up the body of this film. Having established the setting & tone, the director gives us a story. It's presented in a series of vignettes focusing mostly on the love-hate relationship between a boy and his father. Both the father & son are jerks struggling to become good, each in his own way. We return to another impressionistic sequence, this time including the main characters and short bits of dialogue & voice-overs. To some of the audience it may give closure & satisfaction. To others, it may be infuriatingly insufficient

How do you watch such a film? Well you've got to lower any defenses you have. You've got to try not to make a sense out of everything you see. You've got to take it all in, and let it enter you, just as smoothly as the film explores the evolution of the universe, the evolution of the species and man from the most primitive of cells to the dinosaurs to a simple living room of a troubled family. Make no judgments, consider nothing except the pure experience of being there, wherever the film takes you. Search for no explanation, for there is no real rational reasons other than for the images to be as they are.

The film reflects profoundly the pure mastery of every tool of film creation. Every image counts, each shot was taken with competence and passion, each frame, each camera move is done to perfection by one of the best cinematographers ever. The editing is world class. Every cut, whether the space virtual shots or the family scenes, matter to the narrative, whatever that is. What helps to take this to a whole new level is the incredible leverage of music.. Watch it, let yourself get absorbed. Don’t fight it. Don’t try to figure it out . Just go with it for the experience.

This film demands an incredible lot from you, as a viewer. It demands that you be a different person and use a different approach to film- watching.


Clark