“The Tree of Life,” directed by Terrence Malick, is beautifully abstract, leaping around in time and space, making sense here and not so much sense there. It’s like an impressionist painting that looks like a dabs of paint up close, but begins to take some shape when viewed from a distance. The film centers on a family in Waco, Texas, in the 1950s – a stern patriarch (Brad Pitt), his ethereal wife (Jessica Chastain) and their three boisterous young sons. This is Eden before the fall, envisioned as 50s suburbia. At one point, the voiceover narration tells us, ‘There are two ways through life: the way of nature and the way of grace.” Pitt’s father, with his jutting jaw and buzz haircut, is attuned to the natural world that can be both nurturing and brutish while their mother is full of grace. Their eldest son Jack (Hunter McCracken) is wary of his father and often rebellious. One of the three boys will die at 19, an event so shattering that to make sense of it, Malick takes us to the origins of the universe, conjuring bright galaxies. Planets form. Lava erupts. Life begins with cells, plants, invertebrates, and dinosaurs. Then we return to Eden. Woven throughout the film is ongoing questions: Why does misfortune befall good people? How can faith be sustained in the face of tragedy that is, by nature, incomprehensible? What of God? Where do we belong in an uncaring world?
The three central portraits, father, mother, first-born child, are astonishingly vivid, especially since they are not conventional performances. The dialogue is sparse and the script does away with typical plot and conflict. Yet we learn a lot about this family, the repressed anger, the explosive rage and the grief caused by sudden tragedy. Into adulthood, Jack (now played by Sean Penn) continues to wonder what happened to the innocence of childhood, how his mother endured the pain in her life and who was the father that he both loved and hated. “The Tree of Life” is full of powerful images that will stay with you long after you’ve left the theater. But more, “the Tree of Life” ponders some of life’s hardest questions, which will provide endless fodder for discussion and a desire to see it again. 6/3/11
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