Movie Talk -- Tree of Life (2011)

The film opens with the image of a colorful gaseous formation emerging out of darkness. Intimate, expansive, ethereal, masterful...such are the words that come to mind when I attempt to describe Terrence Mallick's Tree of Life.

This movie's cinematography is breath-taking visual poetry that hints at elemental truths.

Led by stars Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, Tree of Life is the story of a family. But is it really a "story" when none of what could be described as the "narrative" of the film is put together in a chronological sequence? And not only that, but the scenes that revolve around this human family are interspersed with long scenes of other events across time and space. I think it will be more appropriate to assert that the story of a family is one branch of Tree of Life.

For example, there is a scene starring dinosaurs, wherein one velociraptor finds another dinosaur lying incapacitated in a riverbed. The velociraptor presses his foot down into the other dinosaur's head and holds it there before eventually dodging away. What we see in this scene is not a cartoonish representation of humanized dinosaurs that can speak with the English language, nor does it come across as a visual or literal metaphor that relates to some aspect of the "main storyline." When you watch this scene, you really feel the drama of the scene itself, between two creatures in a land before humans had ever walked the earth.

Like Yggdrasil, the World-Tree of Norse mythology -- an ash tree in which Odin the All-Father hung suspended for 9 days and nights to achieve enlightenment and the knowledge of the runes -- Tree of Life can inspire something mystical in you.

One moment, the film whispers. The next, it ROARS.

On one day, the father (played by Brad Pitt) gives advice to his son that really resonates to the core of the mystery of our everyday experience:

"Don't do like I did. Promise me that. I dreamed of being a great musician. I let myself get sidetracked. When you were looking for something to happen, that was it. That was life. You lived it."

On another day, the mother (played by Jessica Chastain) says in a voice-over:

"Help each other. Love everyone. Every leaf. Every ray of light. Forgive."

I love this movie. On the other hand, I'm sure it is not for everyone. If you are in for a long, slow, delicate movie, check out Tree of Life.