"The Tree of Life" is not a conventional film. You will hear it be defined as a visual poem, prayer or meditation, and each of these definitions will be true. It is also true that it is a journey. A odyssey of the singular origin of creation that our limited consciousness is incapable of rationalizing until the very end of the time when the laws of physics cease to work. And in the midst of this vastness is life that, despite its fragility and timidity, is perhaps the most significant and complex creation of the universe. But how does such a comprehensive philosophical journey begin? It starts with something specific. It starts with death. In the 1950s in the US Midwest, the O'Brien family received news of the untimely death of one of their sons. Years later, the memory of this day causes their eldest son, Jack, living in the sterile, isolated modern world of glass and steel towers, to reevaluate his life, to try to find the answer to the most difficult question "Why "And to reconcile the two eternal warriors in him with the view of life - the path of nature and the way of love that are embodied by his two parents. Father is the raw force of nature - he believes you are weak, you will be crushed, and the only chance you succeed is to be strong and the mother is the way of love - she teaches that the right way is good, to love real and if you help the people around you, you will succeed.
But before Jack came to personal catharsis, the memory of the tragedy and the lost innocence reverberated over time and sent us on an incredible journey to the beginning of the immense universal creation. Here the film undergoes a huge transformation and takes the form of a unique audio-visual impression of the birth and evolution of life. A transformation on a journey calling for the mention of Kubrick's "Space Odyssey" - an equally ambitious film exploring where we came from and where we are going. A journey leading us through the history of the stars and the Earth. Here is the moment that all fans expect, the appearance of dinosaurs. She, of course, is not big, but she is not self-centered, philosophically busy, and has a lot to say, which - I admit - I can not get to a conclusion from one view. Interestingly, however, in the global perspective we look smaller than in the case of sand, it does not in any way diminish the dimensions of human life, but on the contrary, it succeeds in conveying the importance of each individual individual for the achievement of harmony. If you know Malick's work, you will not be wrong with the assumption that the idea of God is an indispensable part of the film. From the initial quotation from Job's book to the frequent appeals to Him in search of an answer and sense of existence (if you've seen at least something about Malick , you know that the conversations are voice behind the frame). This, however, does not mean that the film is some kind of religious confession. No, it is an expression of the material and spiritual symbiosis, the purely scientific understanding of the beginning and the hidden mysterious moment in which everything begins and in which, by chance, the church has found the last refuge.
If all of this seems to you to be overly referenced, philosophical or pseudo-intellectual, you probably have to stay farther from the film, because in its essence it is called this - an attempt to understand the world in which we live and our essence. The film has no conventional dramaturgic structure, no traditional narrative arches, little dialogue, and the characters are not developed the way you would expect to see in a quality drama - yet they are deep and plausible, which is largely due to performance of the actors. Brad Pitt is doing one of his best roles so far, and Jessica Chastain, though not shining, reminiscent of the feminine beginning. If you are not tuned for any movie experiments and deviations from the well-traveled road of romantic comedies and action, it is better not to get on the Tree. For me personally, "The Tree of Life" is one of the most original works I've seen the next few years. I like every angle, the movement of the camera, the natural pictures, the shadows, even the voice behind the picture, and I can not wait to see it again and again, to rediscover it and share it with friends.