Because it's all New Age and thoughtful and all, I suspect most here will see Terence Malick's "The Tree Of Life" no matter what I say or anyone else says about it. That's good, because it's gonna polarize both critics and audiences. At Cannes, the film was alternately applauded and booed during its first showing. It went on to be awarded the Palme d'Or.
I would suggest that the reason for this is that Cannes is a French film festival, and the French are given to pondering. If a film spends much of its time pondering heavy subjects, they are willing to overlook the fact that it's ponderous. The "Tree Of Life" is ponderous. At times it makes the Biblical Book Of Job look like a comedy; even the music is ponderous. There are certainly beautiful moments in "The Tree Of Life." Much of it is literally a National Geographic special, full of beautiful and awe-inspiring images from nature, complete with dinosaurs. These segments are punctuated by the pondering, much of it disembodied voiceovers. There ARE people in the film, but in many ways they're almost an afterthought; they appear in fits and spurts as we move forwards and backwards in time, but seem to be there only so that they can ponder. Sean Penn has himself complained publicly that he does not see the emotion he saw in the script up on the screen. That said, he is very good in this film, as are Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain. Maybe this film would have been more meaningful to me if I were a believer in God. Much of it is spent pondering His inscrutable ways, and asking questions of Him that are never answered. But I'm not. For others it may evoke memories of their own childhoods, as it did for Roger Ebert -- he gave it four stars and called it a masterpiece. But for me it didn't. Personally, as ponderings of the meaning of life go, I have to think that Alan Ball managed a better one in Lester Burnham's last speech in "American Beauty." That was a "voiceover moment" as well, but it only took 30 seconds instead of 140 minutes, and IMO it said more about the meaning of life: "I had always heard your entire life flashes in front of your eyes the second before you die. First of all, that one second isn't a second at all, it stretches on forever, like an ocean of time... For me, it was lying on my back at Boy Scout camp, watching falling stars... And yellow leaves, from the maple trees, that lined our street... Or my grandmother's hands, and the way her skin seemed like paper... And the first time I saw my cousin Tony's brand new Firebird... And Janie... And Janie... And... Carolyn. I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me... but it's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst... And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life... You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure. But don't worry... you will someday."
