The audacity of what Terrance Malick attempted with his latest, Palm-d’or-winning film The Tree of Life is nothing short of ambitious. Whether he succeeded or failed has been hotly debated in the last few weeks, particularly after the love the Cannes Film Festival bolstered upon it. What Malick has offered is an impressionistic, meditative piece on the meaning of relationships and the connections they offer in an eternal perspective. Indeed, the film covers the beginning of time with beautiful shots of what most likely should be interpreted as the creation of this universe, the forming of this earth. Shots of cells, plants, volcanos, and other images that suggest things like the primordial soup fill up most of the film’s beginning. A few gloomy dinosaurs even make their appearance.  It’s all very contemplative, and strikingly beautiful.

At some point in the film’s journey through time, we settle in 1950s era Waco, Texas.  A striking choice of location considering it’s celebrity.  Here we meet a family of five–Mr. O’Brien (Brad Pitt), his wife Mrs. O’Brien (Jessica Chastain), and their three children Jack, J.L. and Steve.  Jack tends to hold the camera’s attention most often, and there are scenes in the present day (and distant future) where Jack is played by Sean Penn as a listless and confused adult working in a modernist city setting.  As with Malick’s other films, there’s a great amount of voice overs rambling barely audible sentences that fail to meet the definition of dialogue, are often unrelated from the words whispered before and after it, and seem to be flowing in a stream-of-consciousness sort of way.  This will certainly rub some people the wrong way, yours truly included.  The impetus of this device comes in the film’s opening scene where Mr. and Mrs. O’Brien learn of the death of one of their sons, an event that impacts the mood of the entire remainder of the film.  Existentialist pattering like, “Unless you love, your life will flash by.”  Or “Nature only wants to please itself. Get others to please it too. Likes to lord it over them. To have its own way. It finds reasons to be unhappy when all the world is shining around it. And love is smiling through all things.”

The world that Malick managed to create and place the O’Brien family in is nothing short of remarkable.  It’s atmospheric in the very best ways, it’s haunting and truly reminiscent of the ways childhood memories seem to float through our minds, the complicated connection and disconnection we feel with our family members.  Visually, much of this should be attributed to the production designer Jack Fisk and the cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezkiwho captures the innocence of childhood and complex subjects Malick intended with their beautifully composed shots.  Alexander Desplat gathered the score which, besides being perfectly fitted to the film’s images, provided a much needed emotional connection to the on-screen goings-on.  The music comes from varying sources, ranging from Brahms to Henryk Górecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs.

You will not find the presence of traditional storytelling in The Tree of Life.  Personally, I’m all for experimental-type filmmaking.  But where this film errs is in it’s inability to make one care about its characters.  An exploration of the parent-child relationship would be a welcomed one, had Malick allowed me to invest in any one of the characters.  With this missing element it’s difficult to find value in what is being portrayed on screen.  Particularly with its eternal perspective–the film ends in the setting of some sort of after life on an idyllic beach.

There are moments of brilliance scattered throughout the film.  If you’ll forgive the comparison, it reminded me quite a bit of Gaspar Noé’s Enter the Void: genuine genius sprinkled through excess you must trudge through to find.

3 out of 4 stars

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is one long-ass movie.  Let’s break it down into three parts, each one hour long. The first act is where the movie shines (and it’s probably the only part the Academy voters will remember when awarding those little statues in February).  Brad Pitt plays Benjamin, the new-born old man.  He’s left on the steps of a retirement home, where he’s adopted under the guise of her nephew by a worker there named Queenie (Taraji P. Henson).  Despite the fact he’s growing young, he fits right in among the oldies.  The special effects are remarkable in this first act, this is where the film actually merits attention from Oscar.  Well done on this count.  Benjamin meets a kindred spirit in Daisy (Cate Blanchett), the granddaughter of one of Ben’s roommates.  They start this on again off again thing that drags out over the following two hours, but really only manages to keep your attention for less than half that time.

Daisy gets seduced by New York life, and becomes one of those self-congratulatory Manhattanites, a very successful ballet dancer, and, well, kind of a ho.  In the meantime, Ben is off experiencing the world by means of a tug boat, visiting ports all over the world.  This travelogue teaches Benjamin a lot of important things.  He has his first love affair (with a watered down Tilda Swenson), his ship and crew are commissioned into the Navy where he’s confronted with a lot of death, and finally, he returns home a man.

It’s here, when Benjamin and Daisy are coming close to the same physical age, that The Curious Case of Benjamin Button just gets dull.  It’s not Blanchett’s fault, who shines bright.  It’s not Swinton, or Henson who did what they could with Eric Roth’s script.  It’s not the cinematographer’s fault, who made most scenes look like beautiful paintings.  The problem is simply that the story just goes way to long, much longer than even Fincher can sustain, and way longer than Pitt can.  Pitt seems to loose all gusto once the make-up and special effects go away.  I don’t know (and I don’t really care) if it was big studio demands that made Fincher water this story down to a tame PG-13, but it definitely seemed to restrain some of his artistic capacity.  What’s most frustrating is this film is leading the Oscar-buzz race for Best Picture.  And it’s just not worthy.  Benjamin Button is too long, rambles too much, and leaves you let down after months of promising hype.  Even so, it has some shining moments and probably merits a viewing before Oscar night.

2 out of 4 stars

Rottentomatoes: 76% – Cream of the Crop: 79%

The Coen brothers supply the film with a terrific, clockwork script (the kind we’ve learned to expect from them) that shows their fascination with those who fatally act first, before learning all the facts.  Frances McDormand and Brad Pitt lead the whole cast with their comedic prowess.  Pitt is a good actor, there’s no doubt, but his best roles are the ones of the stupid pretty boy, and Burn is the perfect example.  The rest of the cast seems to be a who’s who of the acting world (Tilda Swinton, despite being involved in that Narnia nonsense, must have joined this esteemed rank as of her Oscar win earlier this year).

The plot is so complicated (and I don’t want to give away any spoilers), a summary isn’t really possible.  At the end, it doesn’t make a whole lot of a sense, but suffice it to say, this film is terrifically funny, and you should watch it.

3 out of 4 stars

Rottentomatoes: 78% – Cream of the Crop: 54%

Below is the ‘approved for all audiences’ trailer, and the redband trailer (squeamish be warned).