The Tree of Life
I had such high hopes for this film, and I love that a studio was willing to take a chance on it. That being said... 2/5, if that.
Some people have called the pacing of this film deliberate. It was not deliberate... it was dull and drawn out. Several scenes went on too long. One scene ended too many times (at least 3 times too many, though the exact number is open to debate).
Yet with that, the director employed quick cuts and shaky camera work. If this doesn't work for action movies (except to hide the fact that your actors can't fight convincingly), then why would it work for a movie you have to think about?
Yet again, there are no real characters in this film, except Brad Pitt's character, and I don't even know his name. In fact, I don't know any of the characters' names. But Brad Pitt was the only one who had any real development... a far better movie could be made by refocusing the story on him. Actually, wait a minute, they DID make that movie... Ah, here it is.
As for the symbolism... The movie opens with a line about there being two ways through life, that of nature and that of grace. Yet Terrence Malick (both writer and director) appears to not understand either one of those things. To Malick, "nature" means being an asshole, and "grace" means Stockholm syndrome.
Anyway, The New World should have been a warning to me that I wouldn't like this film. But I'd heard such good things about it, that I decided to hope for it anyway. While I love that the studios took a risk (since I'm always harping about how they take the "easy money" when making movies, leading to creative stagnation), in this instance I don't feel the risk paid off.
