The Tree of Life (T. Malick, 2011)
When I think of which films from the 21st century will become classics in the future, I can't think of many. I definitely don't want to be in a world where Deadpool, Avengers or any super hero movie represents the best of a generation, it's just too ridiculous.
But this is a whole new level of filmmaking: I'd say
The Tree of Life is our generation's
2001: A Space Odissey or
Stalker, in terms of intellectual and spiritual depth.
The story is like a trip to Jack's memory, and how his father and mother made him the man he used to be. Behind all this there's a search for the meaning of life and a constant relation with deity (which I found hard to relate to, being atheist, but that I respect enormously).
I'd divide this into 4 chapters: the introduction, where we know of Jack's brother death and how that triggers the spiritual travel Jack will do; the Universe sequence, in a sense similar to the dream sequence of
2001 but with a completley different purpose. It's perhaps the most beautiful chapter of the film with stunning visuals and a beautiful soundtrack, and it was perhaps the part that turn more people off, because it doesn't seem very conected to the rest of the film. I think it's there to give us a particular state of mind to what is going to happen next and that's reason enough for me to love it; the core of the story, where we witness Jack's childhood and how Nature (represented by his Father) and Grace (his mother) made him into the person he is; and the Conclusion which I still didn't figure out completely... We are shown an adult Jack in a beach with all his relatives from the time he was a child and some images of his mother running through some trees and some metaphoric images like a bridge. I realize that it represents a new spiritual stage for Jack, as if he was going in the wrong path, following the steps of his Father, and all his memories make him realize he should follow Grace and the memory of his mother. That's the obvious interpration, IMO, but I think there has to be more to it.
The cinematography (Lubezki
) and the soundtrack are simply mindblowing, the acting is great by everyone involved but it's the vision that matters here, the same way Kubrick's vision is the core of
2001.
The Tree of Life will require some more viewings because I feel I haven't extracted everything I could from it, but that's the beauty of an art work, isn't it?
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