“There are two ways through life, the way of nature and the way of grace; you have to choose which one you'll follow.”

-      Mrs. O’Brien

CRITIQUE

Here’s what I wrote about this film back in May:

“Terrence Malick’s fifth motion picture The Tree of Life is as breathless a cinematic experience as any I am likely to have in all of 2011. A treatise on life, aging, the universe, evolution, faith, religion and family, the film bobs and weaves from rural Texas in the 1950’s to the unnamed madness of the glass and steal suburban America. It is a cosmic metaphor for life at its ugliest and most beautiful, intimately discussing ideas and concepts many have thought about but few know the best way to put into words.

What does any of that mean? In all honesty I am not completely sure. The Tree of Life is one of those movies where one viewing simply isn’t enough. There is so much going on, so much of merit on display, so much of substance aching to be told that a person cannot even come close to processing it all or putting it into any sort of coherent perspective after a single sitting. It is a movie that most be felt, experienced and processed multiple times, each revisit almost sure to reveal new layers previously unseen.

For those needing a plot description, the basic thrust concerns Jack (Sean Penn), an unhappy corporate bigwig of one sort of another trying to reconcile his childhood growing up with an iron-fisted father (Brad Pitt) and a mother (Jessica Chastain) he felt was often belittled by the man she supposedly loved. He looks back as he roamed the streets of his small town as a youngster (Hunter McCracken), trying to understand his relationships with his younger brothers R.L. (Laramie Eppler) and Steve (Tye Sheridan) and the tragedy that afflicted and affected them all.

But trying to pin a plot to a Malick meditation is more or less impossible. It’s also pointless. While this is a coming of age saga, while it is a story of forgiveness, while it is a tale of memory and regret, it is also a blissful dreamscape where anything and everything can be pondered and the beginning of the universe can have direct correlation to a family’s mutual maturation. This is metaphorical poetic enterprise in extremes that is hypnotic and it is bewildering, everything leading a conclusion that is as timeless and as bizarre as anything I ever could have imagined.

The obvious comparison here is Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, and only time will tell if Malick’s effort will have the same long-lasting impact. That movie’s treatise on who we are, where we’ve come from and where we are possibly going is, at least in some way, in the same ballpark as to what the much celebrated Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line filmmakers is attempting here. There is a metaphysical quality that goes beyond the usual norms, challenging conventions and asking questions in a way that is intellectually engaging and emotionally riveting.

Some of this can be construed as being heavy-handed. The metaphors are thick and are delivered with little subtlety, and while the meaning behind some of them aren’t instantly evident (I’m talking about the dinosaurs) on later recollection they become so clear they’re almost ridiculous. Malick layers it on at every turn, using Emmanuel Lubezki’s (Children of Men) cinematography and Alexandre Desplat’s (The King’s Speech) miraculous score to hammer all of his multifarious points home.

And yet it works. All of it. Every single ounce. I sat in that theatre mesmerized, unable to move from my seat in any way whatsoever. It didn’t matter if I was going with all of it. It didn’t matter if the relationship between Penn’s older version of Jack and McCracken’s take on the man’s younger self didn’t always connect. It didn’t even matter if I immediately understood or comprehended everything the director was trying to say. All that did matter was that the humongous emotional landscape of memory, history, birth and death held me spellbound, my eagerness to see more overriding any reservations I might have had along the way.

So I need to see it again, that much is true. At the same time, however, I can’t urge viewers of all shapes, sizes, tastes, stripes and colors to see The Tree of Life any more vociferously. Even if a person ends up loathing it, every fiber of their being urging them to flee the theatre, what Malick has attempted, and in many ways accomplished, is unlike anything else I’ve seen in ages. This movie is a masterpiece on many levels, and in the passing of time may end up being considered one as a whole at some point in the future.”

I’ve watched The Tree of Life numerous times since it was released, twice in theatres and now a handful of more times now that it is out on Blu-ray (I think I’m up to six full viewings, with a  couple of more where I’ve watched bits and pieces to try and study them in more detail), and I can definitely say this movie has me obsessed. Perfect? No. Rewarding? Incredibly so. A masterpiece? I’m beginning to believe so. Watch it for yourself, preferably more than once, and you’ll see what I mean.

THE VIDEO

The Tree of Life is presented on a dual-layer 50GB Blu-ray MPEG-4 AVC Video with a 1.85:1/1080p transfer. Staggering. Fox has done an incredible job here, everything about this transfer bordering on perfection.

THE AUDIO

The Tree of Life is presented in English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 as well as English Dolby Digital 2.0 and includes optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles. What I said above? Just multiply that by ten, this audio presentation arguably one of the best I’ve ever encountered in regards to Blu-ray.

EXTRAS

Only one extra of note, but it’s a great one, the Exploring the Tree of Life (29:56) featurettes as good as these sorts of behind-the-scenes shorts can get. While Mallick is obviously nowhere to be found, filmmakers Christopher Nolan and David Fincher can’t say enough about how much of an influence he’s had upon the both of them, while production designer Jack Fisk, costume designer Jacqueline West, cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki and composer Alexandre Desplat go into great detail as to what it took on their part to bring the filmmaker’s vision to life.

The film’s Original Theatrical Trailer (2:08) is also included.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The Tree of Life is one of the year’s best films, plain and simple. It is now also one of the year’s best Blu-ray releases. Buy it immediately.