The Tree of Life 生命樹

My Rating: 3.8/5
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According to Wikipedia, some movie’s background information is as…..”The Tree of Life is a 2011 American drama written and directed by Terrence Malick and starring Sean Penn, Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain. Malick's film chronicles the origins and meaning of life by way of a middle-aged man's childhood memories of his family living in 1950s Texas, while also featuring themes and imagery of space and the birth of life on Earth. (The film's unorthodox style reflects the nature of memory.) After decades in development and missed 2009 and 2010 release dates, the film premiered in competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Palme d'Or. The film received overwhelmingly positive reviews for its technical and artistic merits, but there were also polarizing reactions in response to Malick's directorial style and, in particular, the film's fragmented and non-linear narrative.”

I think The Tree of Life is the most talked art film recently (at least in Hong Kong) and the comments are also very extreme. Some also compare it to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey……I also had such expectation going to see this movie and my feeling is the movie is simply not really up to that grade…. The Tree of Life in fact is a good movie, but not really a great/classic one as 2001: A Space Odyssey……I also think the movie is a bit hollow in details as the movie did only speak for its main theme largely by the visual effect and music score rather than the story itself which the story is in fact quite a flat and boring 50/60s American family grow-up story (also a bit in hollywood way that miss a bit artistic way of independent film’s expression)..….those abstract theatre drama play is also quite pretentious and make me feel something force audiences to get into the main theme of the movie……I feel the Director is very eager to express loads of his idea, thinking and philosophy in Life, but I think I prefer a wonderful story of a movie speaks for its main theme in a subtle way rather than such forceful expression……