Film File - The Tree Of Life

In that select group of genuine superstar directors, Terrence Malick is well up there in the top five. The man who brought to the screen such visual feasts like 'Badlands', 'Days Of Heaven', 'The Thin Red Line' and 'The New World' has never been noted for his profitability at the box office but always ranked as one of cinema's most gifted auteurs. His fifth film is described as "a hymn to life, excavating answers to the most haunting and personal human questions through a kaleidoscope of the intimate and the cosmic". It's an impressionistic story of a Midwestern family in the 1950s, and the film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack (Sean Penn), through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father (Brad Pitt). Jack finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith. Through Malick's signature imagery, the film examines the twin elements of nature and spiritual grace and how they shape not only our lives as individuals and families, but all life itself. For anyone with even a passing knowledge of Mallick, these are familiar themes embedded in much of his work down through the years. Also scripted by Mallick, the story follows the evolution of Jack, a man trying to square a series of lingering questions about his father's anger, his mother's love, his brother's death, and his own struggles with meaning and faith. But Jack's story plays out within the vast beauty of the universe itself, his struggles just another tiny part of the cosmos' grand design from the age of the dinosaurs to his ultimate destiny in the afterlife. Yes, this is surely a film that could well be described as "out there". And yet, it all works in a very strange and baffling way. After all, what other director would even attempt to enter such visually impossible terrain as childhood memory, pre-human history and the burning realm of the stars? As the film moves outward into time and space, it creates images of the universe and earth forming out of explosive chaos, then growing and evolving into the stunning structures of life. Malick consulted with an array of scientists from around the world to better understand all the forces at work - the physics, astronomy and biology - in what he was attempting to capture and, for the first time in his career, he worked extensively with visual effects. Having made only five films in his entire career, and though he remains applauded and hero-worshipped in equal measure, Mallick is no easy Saturday night movie entertainment. Far from the thrill-by-numbers that Hollywood generally throws out - and especially during this summer blockbuster season - 'The Tree Of Life' is a deep exploration of who we are, where we came from and why we behave as we do in this strange play called life. With Pitt and Jessica Chastain taking the roles of Mr and Mrs O'Brien, raising their three boys in an idyllic Texas town, Hunter McCracken plays Jack as a youngster, the son whose clash of wills with his domineering father will leave deep scars and an emotional fallout that will colour his life, both for good and ill. Jumping back and forth in time, the story spans the life and times of Jack and his parents - but also of the universe itself and how it came to be. Mallick even crosses the line beyond death, to peer into where all human life finally finishes. Or does it? 'The Tree Of Life' is baffling, sumptuous, intriguing, pretentious and sometimes quite brilliant. There is a basic story, but one that fades in and out as the fabric of the world is knitted over it, and half the time you may wonder what the heck is happening. Love it or hate it, this is surely one film that will get you talking.