Ryan McNeil
There are two things I know for certain about THE TREE OF LIFE:
One: Those who watch it will either love it or hate it with very little landing in the middle. And two: I can’t remember the last film I wanted to watch again so badly.
THE TREE OF LIFE is the story of Mister and Missus O’Brien (Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain), a Texas couple who raise three boys in their suburban home in the ’50’s. Soon we are introduced to their eldest son Jack as an adult (Sean Penn). Jack is quietly struggling with existentialism, and his quest for answers makes him reflect on his childhood with his two brothers.
Over the course of his career, director Terrence Malick has become more and more philosophical. Since his return from exile, he has intertwined that philosophy into tales of what humanity does to one another when we go to war, and what humanity did when it explored to foreign lands. Now, his philosophical wonderings turn inward…to who we are, and how we come to be that way. It’s a very broad conversation to have, and one that need the audience to do the talking, not the filmmaker.
By keeping the narrative simple and sparse, THE TREE OF LIFE allows its audience time to meditate on the answers. As we watch the O’Brien boys – Jack in particular – go through the film, we are given to asking the big questions not only because they have asked them, but also within the moments we can see that they want to ask but don’t.
Who we are in life is often who our parents raise us to be, and where parenting is concerned, there seems to be no “right answer”. Constantly be a stern disciplinarian like Mr. O’Brien, you run the risk of resentment and backlash: be unendingly open and coddling like Mrs. O’Brien, you risk spoiling them and giving them a sense of entitlement. It’s a delicate balance, like all great stories have, and one that’s made all the more difficult by the fact that a child is going to make their own mind up and evolve into what they want to be.
What’s fascinating to consider, is the way the story reminds us of the way a parent is a model for God. As a child begins to grow, the parent is all-knowing – a light like the abstract image of a flame that breaks up the chapters of this film. However, as the child ages, they begin to question their faith. Like a sheep that decides to stray from the shepherd, they start to think that mom and dad don’t know everything after all. Then where are they supposed to go for guidance?
To mull over such questions, one obviously needs time and opportunity – something THE TREE OF LIFE is happy to provide. Two or three times through the course of every scene, the camera lingers on shots like a breeze blowing the curtains in an open window…or a tree surrounded by endless skyscrapers…or the powerful rush of a waterfall. It’s already unusual for a movie to dare and ask sprawling existential questions. It’s a much gutsier move to allow the viewer time and inspiration to consider the answers.
The catch to all of this cinematic ideology is the fact that it makes for a less accessible movie. Many could find the story of “The O’Brien Boys Grow Up” to be unspectacular for starters, and outright dreadful when it pauses every two minutes to ponder an image like water rushing by. That the film slams on the brakes at the end of its first act to illustrate over twenty minutes how the entire world evolved to get us to this point could well be the backbreaker. Not that such audience restlessness matters much – THE TREE OF LIFE isn’t the sort of film that is made with a lucrative box office take in mind.
As I reflect back on all of the stunning visuals within the film, the tender performances brought to life by all involved, and the places it has taken my brain during and since, I have to qualify the film as a true success. It has taken the simplest possible narrative (“1950’s Texas couple raise three kids”) and turned it into something gloriously meditative. It has enough respect for its audience not to hold their hand, and to leave them with a piece of art that is truly lasting.
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