Kristin Reviews The Tree of Life

It’s tempting to limit my review of Tree of Life to the following: W. T. F. ?

Honestly, there’s not much more to say.

Obviously a lot of Academy members appreciated this movie; I sure as heck wish I knew why. According to the Netflix synopsis, it’s “a 1950s adventure about a confused man named Jack who sets off on a journey to understand the true nature of the world . . .”

Not that I want to spoil it for you – although sitting through the damn thing spoiled MY evening, so if I can save you from that, I’ll feel it was justified- but here’s what you should know:

• This movie is not an “adventure.”
• If someone sets off on a journey to do anything it’s so subtle, I missed it.
• Child Jack struggles to understand the concepts of right and wrong based on his perceptions of his father’s choices and his belief in a Christian god.
• Adult Jack does a total of three things: sit in an office and look out the window, walk around in a variety of landscapes, and participate in some kind of LOST-ending meet ‘n’ greet on a beach with people from his life.
• Also, someone dies, but it’s never clear who it is.

A story, by definition, has a beginning, a middle, and an end. In Tree of Life, the beginning is, apparently, the beginning of the universe. The middle is a series of scenes depicting a family existing day-to-day. And the end is . . . something J. J. Abrams would approve of, except without characters the audience is attached to.

Not a giving tree, Tree of Life is a taking tree; Terrence Malik took two hours and fifteen minutes of my life, and I’ll never get them back

-Kristin
12.14.2011