Seeing the Forest for the Trees

a painting by Elayne Robinson, my mudda....

“Love is an abstract noun, something nebulous. And yet love turns out to be the only part of us that is solid, as the world turns upside down and the screen goes black. We can't tell if it will survive us. But we can be sure that it's the last thing to go.”
― Martin Amis, The Second Plane: 14 Responses to September 11 

This is something that came to mind repeatedly when I  recently took in "The Tree of Life" which was screened at TIFF then brought to my neck of the woods (haha a pun involving a tree...) by the Allied Arts Council of Pincher Creek. This movie was so far from what I expected I really felt for a huge part of it I was lost in a forest. A weirdly strange albeit fascinating forest that for some was probably too much and for others the equivalent of a strong sedative.

It was one of those films where you just really get blindsided and in this case I welcomed the unpredictability and essence of escape into a surreal reality of what the director  may or may not have been trying to depict! Hmmm I realize that is a little ambiguous however in my own defense so was this movie! To me it was something so amazing because of it's simplicity and the way that simplicity was deconstructed to four elements of spiritual growth: Love,Hate,Faith,Acceptance.

He did this through a total breakdown in usual structure of film storylines. The beginning was the end and the end the beginning with so much breathtaking cinematography in between that it alone kept my significant other from running out of the theater screaming "That`s the last God damned arsty fartsy movie you're ever dragging me too!!"

The religious rhetoric of the movie was increasingly important to the fractured dialogue as the director Terrence Malick, took us down a road that seemed intent on the "fact" that Love ,God , Faith, Hope is Nebulous. Something indistinct and vague. Dark , cryptic,mysterious and obscure.

When all else falls away, when the thin line between love and hate is crossed, when we realize that in the end the only thing that ever really meant anything at all was love. When we grasp this  I think it is then easy to grasp what Malick was trying to say.  There was just the few scenes with prehistoric animals I didn't really get...Although there is basically the beginning of the universe in one part of the film and so maybe the formation of life from tiny flickering amoebas is supposed to be represented by the progression to a giant herbivore laying wounded on a beach???? Also another scene of a small herbivore laying buy a stream when a big meat eater comes along and steps on his little head but then has second thoughts about eating him and wanders off down the stream...???? A dinosaur with a conscience? who knew?

Although the many of the scenes were breath taking it was a long film and for some a bit lengthy to sit through especially when they could not figure out what exactly it was that was going on? I know the woman behind me was requesting a debriefing when the credits started to run.

All in all , arsty fartsy , it was facinating and beautifully shot!! I would see it again ...not right away and as my friend Joni said..."can we get a cup of coffee first?"

I give it 4 stunning nebula's out of 5! go see it, take an arsty farsty friend they will appreciate it! Maybe get a cup of coffee first!