Tree of Life (2011)

Tagline: OH HEY DINOSAURS!

Curiosity: The buzz has been good, Brad Pitt has shown excellent taste in projects recently, and my fiancée wanted to see it.

Plot: Tree of Life’s plot is almost beside the point, but here goes: Jack (Sean Penn) reflects on his past, specifically on his father and mother (Pitt and Jessica Chastain, who are more remarkable but whose characters are never named) and their different parenting techniques, as well as his brother who died at 19. The film is primarily made up of impressionistic snapshots from Jack’s youth.

ALSO DINOSAURS SHOW UP.

Thoughts: Oddly enough, Michelle and I developed an award after seeing another Pitt vehicle: The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford inspired the “Most Beautiful Piece of Shit of the Year” award. Both films possess amazing cinematography, but lack compelling storytelling. In Assassination’s case, the film relied too much on narration (a tool of the lazy screenwriter) and long, uncomfortable, nearly homoerotic pauses between cowboys. Tree’s problem is that it doesn’t go anywhere.

Which is a shame, because while it’s an awfully slow movie, I was still really, really plugged in for the first 90 minutes or so. The film opens with some surreal, artsy scenes establishing the family’s dynamic. Then we get hit with a powerful series of shots as characters react to Jack’s brother dying. Then the film juxtaposes this very personal tragedy against all of existence, literally. We get shots of volcanoes erupting and planets forming and dinosaurs hanging out. And it looks darn good too. The dinos are CGI, but they look decent. Primarily, though, the special effects were handled Douglas Trumbull, who came out of retirement as a favor for director Terrence Malick.

What’s funny, to me at least, is that the universe stuff made me think of 2001: A Space Odyssey, which Trumbull just so happened to work on, as well as Blade Runner, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The guy comes from an older, better stock of special effects coordinators, and it shows. Tree of Life is an emotional film about family, but it packs some gorgeous sci-fi visuals along the way, proving while computers make filmmaking easier, they do not necessarily make them easier. Director of Cinematography Emmanuel Lubezki (who also did great work with films like Children of Men and, um, The Cat in the Hat) supplements these effects with a swirling cascade of shots that keep the viewer attached. Tree of Life is a marvel to look at, and proof that Hollywood needs to look backwards in order to move forwards.

But the script is sadly empty. Outside of Jack realizing he’s turning into a strict, bullish man just like his Navy-bred father, there’s little going on in terms of plot or character development. The movie never truly, definitively comments on the ideas it puts forth about life or death as concepts or as they apply to Jack’s brother and his passing’s impact on the family. Tree of Life had me for the first 90 minutes, but those final 50, where nothing happens, were a chore. While my fiancée and I certainly got a lot of mileage out of discussing the film and its meaning, it’s ultimately something I will never watch again.

Reflection: NEEDS MORE DINOSAURS PLEASE.