The Tree of LifeWhere do our prayers go? Do they float through the cosmos, or are they rooted to earthly blessings, like family? The Tree of Life is a poetic drama The O'Briens, a suburban family whose history is recollected by the eldest son, Jack (Sean Penn). Now an adult, Jack searches for the meaning of his existence and for his faith by recalling these days of his youth. He revisits his memories of his authoritarian father (Brad Pitt) and his nurturing mother (Jessica Chastain), and how his understanding of God and family were molded from a young age through his upbringing.
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Written and directed by Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life defies a traditional narrative structure; most of the film is actually a flashback of Jack's, and these recollections are not chronological. It starts with a predominance of meditative contemplations by Mrs. O'Brien about the conflict between grace and nature, and establishes that she has a graceful outlook on life. This tranquil worldview is violently challenged after she receives an ominous telegram, revealing that her second son, R. L., has died at the age of nineteen. The parents struggle with their grief, and question how they might have loved their son better, or what greater purpose R. L.'s death served. Many years later, Jack has become a wealthy but emotionally dissatisfied businessman--the kind of man his father claims he wanted him to become. Jack lights a single candle in a blue votive in memory of R. L., and stares into the flame. His life is unfulfilled, evidenced from the wordless divide between him and his wife (Joanna Going). His workplace is in the midst of crystalline skyscrapers, and his office is almost in the clouds, looking down at the world below him like a corporate god. But Jack's workplace has a coldness and sterile quality to it, and there is never a smile on his face. Despite Jack's success, he has become like Ebenezer Scrooge; his dreams during business meetings of those "better days" as a boy in the suburbs are his "three ghosts". The Tree of Life does not expound on how Jack approached his current life in a traditional way; it prefers to focus on the importance of our faith and prayers in that adventure. Jack is just one man caught up in the eternal and infinite tapestry of creation, and The Tree of Life explores this through an extended interlude that depicts the creation of the universe--an expansive and visually stunning scene that is in response to Mrs. O'Brien's crisis of faith when confronted with her grief. Prayers are often whispered by Jack and his mother, and there are periodic interjections of radiance that suggests that God is listening. The beginning of The Tree of Life contains a quote from the Book of Job, and Jack remembers a sermon from childhood with the message that misfortune befalls all, not just the wicked. This becomes a point of contention for the young Jack (Hunter McCracken), who feels that God--like his father--is hypocritical for setting rules that others should follow, yet not observing them himself. Jack subsequently goes through a rebellious stage, letting "the devil" into his heart, torn in his compulsion to challenge his parents' boundaries while simultaneously seeking their approval. His father is stern, and secretly resents that he did not make a career out of his obvious passion for classical music. He is more enthusiastic about a record of Brahms being played at dinner than his son's book report, sharing stories about his favorite composers with Jack. But resentment has chipped away at his heart, turning him more and more cynical as the years roll on. He tries to teach a young Jack how to sucker punch someone if he should get into a fight, and then teaches him how to box. Jack tries to do the same thing with R. L. (Laramie Eppler) years later; but R. L. has no interest in roughhousing, and is more content to embrace his artistic side, playing guitar in harmony with his father or painting a picture.
Jack looks back on moments when he and his other two brothers would play by the river, or climb on a large tree growing in their backyard, remembering the latter as he passes by a lone tree growing among the concrete and steel of his company's campus. The tree symbolizes the way that life branches out in myriad and unpredictable ways, while remaining connected to its roots, including God and family. The tree reappears in the advent of the world, standing alone above the verdant terrain, like the silent sentinel of the brave new world. This episode offers perspective about how inconsequential our problems and our pain seem compared to the enormity of the universe. The scene depicts heavenly bodies and vistas that are titanic and beautiful, nebulae and galaxies that radiate light and explode in flames. It also represents Jack and his mother's primal doubts about God, as they contemplate a creator that may be ambivalent to their individual prayers--or even unwilling to devote excess attention to the sorrows of one person if it were to come at the expense of the rest of the cosmos. This scene is designed to parallel Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, sharing stylistic and thematic similarities with the "Star Gate" sequence. Dramatic scenes involving dinosaurs in their prehistoric habitat also mirrors the first act of 2001--with ancient life displaying universal emotions like fear and mercy. It is unsurprising that when The Tree of Life debuted, it was also released in IMAX theaters, with the giant screens capitalizing on the film's bold and striking imagery on a colossal scale. As Jack comes to terms with his past, he envisions himself journeying through a desert before coming across a sandbar, where he is reunited with all of his loved ones, who look like he remembered him from his youth. This transcendent moment is the culmination of Jack's soul searching--his life flashing before his eyes--and also recalls the evolution of the Star Child in 2001. As with many of Terrence Malick's films, The Tree of Life is a lush meditation on crucial aspects of humanity, both dreamlike and elegiac, saying more with metaphor than plot. Consider when Mrs. O'Brien points up to the sky and tells Jack, "that's where God lives", and the camera pans upward toward the sky. After a couple of tragic incidents befall his friends, Jack questions the veracity of this; while he is playing catch, the camera repeats that same upward pan, and he wonders why these terrible things had to happen, looking for answers from the one he holds responsible. Jack speculates how his mother was able to bear so much sorrow with so much with grace, from his father's outbursts to the loss of his brother. William Makepeace Thackeray wrote in "Vanity Fair" that "Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children". Jack views his mother as "God" or an angel, and envisions her floating around the tree outside the house like she were infused with holy light. Because of the visually-driven aesthetic, the audience has some agency in interpreting The Tree of Life. Consider one miraculous shot (of many) depicting a flock of birds bobbing and weaving through the skyline at sunset, undulating like one of the multitudinous protozoa shown in the harsh formative age of life on our planet; and then a voice whispers, "was I false to you?" It sounds a lot like Mrs. O'Brien; who is she asking this question of, and why? These existential questions afford the audience the right to experience The Tree of Life with more subjectivity than many other films; after all, each person's life is subjective.
Recommended for: Fans of a meditative drama that explores ponderous themes like faith, family, and the meaning of life, with vivid visuals that invite introspection and contemplation. The Tree of Life demands that the audience be open to the experience of abandoning conventional narrative structure in favor of a gorgeous exploration of the soul.
Jack looks back on moments when he and his other two brothers would play by the river, or climb on a large tree growing in their backyard, remembering the latter as he passes by a lone tree growing among the concrete and steel of his company's campus. The tree symbolizes the way that life branches out in myriad and unpredictable ways, while remaining connected to its roots, including God and family. The tree reappears in the advent of the world, standing alone above the verdant terrain, like the silent sentinel of the brave new world. This episode offers perspective about how inconsequential our problems and our pain seem compared to the enormity of the universe. The scene depicts heavenly bodies and vistas that are titanic and beautiful, nebulae and galaxies that radiate light and explode in flames. It also represents Jack and his mother's primal doubts about God, as they contemplate a creator that may be ambivalent to their individual prayers--or even unwilling to devote excess attention to the sorrows of one person if it were to come at the expense of the rest of the cosmos. This scene is designed to parallel Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, sharing stylistic and thematic similarities with the "Star Gate" sequence. Dramatic scenes involving dinosaurs in their prehistoric habitat also mirrors the first act of 2001--with ancient life displaying universal emotions like fear and mercy. It is unsurprising that when The Tree of Life debuted, it was also released in IMAX theaters, with the giant screens capitalizing on the film's bold and striking imagery on a colossal scale. As Jack comes to terms with his past, he envisions himself journeying through a desert before coming across a sandbar, where he is reunited with all of his loved ones, who look like he remembered him from his youth. This transcendent moment is the culmination of Jack's soul searching--his life flashing before his eyes--and also recalls the evolution of the Star Child in 2001. As with many of Terrence Malick's films, The Tree of Life is a lush meditation on crucial aspects of humanity, both dreamlike and elegiac, saying more with metaphor than plot. Consider when Mrs. O'Brien points up to the sky and tells Jack, "that's where God lives", and the camera pans upward toward the sky. After a couple of tragic incidents befall his friends, Jack questions the veracity of this; while he is playing catch, the camera repeats that same upward pan, and he wonders why these terrible things had to happen, looking for answers from the one he holds responsible. Jack speculates how his mother was able to bear so much sorrow with so much with grace, from his father's outbursts to the loss of his brother. William Makepeace Thackeray wrote in "Vanity Fair" that "Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children". Jack views his mother as "God" or an angel, and envisions her floating around the tree outside the house like she were infused with holy light. Because of the visually-driven aesthetic, the audience has some agency in interpreting The Tree of Life. Consider one miraculous shot (of many) depicting a flock of birds bobbing and weaving through the skyline at sunset, undulating like one of the multitudinous protozoa shown in the harsh formative age of life on our planet; and then a voice whispers, "was I false to you?" It sounds a lot like Mrs. O'Brien; who is she asking this question of, and why? These existential questions afford the audience the right to experience The Tree of Life with more subjectivity than many other films; after all, each person's life is subjective.
Recommended for: Fans of a meditative drama that explores ponderous themes like faith, family, and the meaning of life, with vivid visuals that invite introspection and contemplation. The Tree of Life demands that the audience be open to the experience of abandoning conventional narrative structure in favor of a gorgeous exploration of the soul.