The Tree of Life: A Review
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Joseph Campbell once said that people aren’t so much interested in the meaning of life as they are in having an experience of life. Terrence Malik’s latest movie, The Tree of Life, seeks to uncover that experience in us. It is an exercise in being alive in the moment. I say “exercise” because it is two hours and eighteen minutes long. You really have to want to be there. But if you are in a meditative mood and you trust Malick’s ability to show you what you’re missing whilst you’re dreaming you’re awake, this is the movie for you.
The setting for this movie is a little difficult to describe. You might say that it takes place somewhere in small-town America in the 1950s, or you could say it spans the entire lifespan of our solar system. Either explanation would be correct, but only partially. More accurately, it is a delving into the soul, mostly that of the main character, a boy/middle-aged man struggling to understand his relationship with his father and mother and, ultimately, with God. Told through symbols and metaphor, this soulscape is the main backdrop of the story. Industrial settings are cold and vacuous, bereft of meaning, surrounded by opulence and yet utterly impoverished. Early childhood memories are shrouded in mist and fraught with contradiction and ambiguity. The father’s earthly dream of success becomes the nightmare for those who have to share the same house with it. Prehistoric battles for survival presage sibling rivalry – who will be loved, and who will not? Cosmic beginnings rumble with deafening silence, echoing in our deepest chambers the litany of fire that can either transform or obliterate.
Because of these monumental images, The Tree of Life...
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Read the full article, and others like it at: http://edgemagazine.net/2012/01/the-tree-of-life-a-review/
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