Every ten years, Terrence Malick directs a film that critics call a masterpiece (Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line, The New World). Here, he has created a bewildering, pompous mess.
The core of The Tree of Life is fine 90-minute family drama about a boy growing up in 1950s Waco (a superb Hunter McCracken) and the friction with his caring but brutishly domineering father (Brad Pitt). Unfortunately, there is another 60 minutes in the movie.
That additional 60 minutes is a self-important muddle that tries to lift the story to an exploration of life itself – from creation through afterlife. There are beautiful shots of clouds and waterfalls, with unintelligible whisperings from cast members. There are Bible verses, the Big Bang and dinosaurs (yes, dinosaurs). And, in case you don’t get how seriously the movie takes itself, there is an overbearingly pretentious score.
Plus, there is Sean Penn, silently brooding about his childhood from a skyscraper. And wandering through a desert in his suit. And reunited with his dead relatives on a tidal flat.
Malick’s pretense succeeds only in distracting the audience from could have been a good story and a beautifully shot film. Bottom line: painfully unwatchable.