REVIEW: To the Wonder

To the Wonder (2013): Written and directed by: Terrence Malick. Starring: Ben Affleck, Olga Kurylenko, Rachel McAdams, Javier Bardem and Romina Mondello. Rated R (Fleeting glimpses of breasts). Running time: 113 minutes.

2 stars (out of four)

Offhand, I can only recall one instance – no, wait, I’ve just thought of another – when a character walks at a pace faster than an idle stroll in To the Wonder, Terrence Malick’s dispiritingly limp new film. As Mr. Malick’s ever-moving camera swirls about his subjects, you may find yourself wishing someone would take a sure step forward and walk with something resembling purpose and conviction.

But this is not a film that places much value on certainty. To the Wonder, though it is not to be confused with the imperative Lil’ Jon refrain, does actually feature its share of characters moving to the windows. Standing beside the windows of homes, churches and motel rooms, they sometimes caress and kiss one another but more often they simply gaze outside looking for… for what?

For happiness, I suppose. Also empathy and love. The film’s characters are trapped inside themselves, longing for a lasting and meaningful connection to another person. This is, at least, how I saw the movie but it is abstract enough to invite multiple interpretations.

To the Wonder follows, in mostly linear fashion, a relationship in decline. A French woman (Olga Kurylenko), abandoned by another man some years earlier, decides to move to a rural Midwestern town where she and her daughter (Tatiana Chiline) will live with an American man (Ben Affleck). Terrence Malick also interweaves memories from the past, chases tangents by following the lives of other townspeople and ends on what I understood to be a fantasy.

We never learn how the two met but it is soon clear that the romance is now gone and the love was perhaps never there to begin with. Ben Affleck’s character as we see him is cold and detached. He is usually down for some fondling (beside one of those windows) or sex but we can see from the anguished expressions of Olga Kurylenko that something vital is missing from their relationship.

This man remains at a distance, not only from Ms. Kurylenko, but from us as well. His presence looms large over the film but we never get a sense of his internal emotions, not even when he is alone. He wanders through the muck and dirt of construction sites, apparently surveying the damage being done to the town’s water, which has been tainted by chemicals, but no expression ever crosses his face. Is he weary? Defeated? Indifferent? Mr. Malick does not offer any clues. Ben Affleck has hardly any lines in the entire film; he just walks around stone-faced and vacant-looking.

Call it an artistic gamble, an experiment, a bold choice, but it drains the emotional power from the movie. And with the heart of the film missing, its curious diversions are all the more frustrating. The midsection of the film, which depicts a romance between Ben Affleck and an old flame played by Rachel McAdams, adds nothing new. He is the same with her as with Ms. Kurylenko. An opportunity to flesh out a new side to this opaque character is lost.

Javier Bardem, as a priest, walks around town, speaking with and blessing the impoverished. Some are physically deformed from the contaminated water. His scenes in this ostensible leper colony offer some fascinating images worth chewing on and mulling over but they feel too disconnected from the rest of the film. It is difficult to know what to make of them.

And this is what makes To the Wonder such a tantalizing but ultimately underwhelming film. Mr. Malick is known for shooting lots of material and whittling it down to its final form in the editing room, and the results are usually mesmerizing. His films are lyrical suites of images and naturalistic moments caught on film; structurally, they resemble musical compositions more than narrative storytelling. But something is missing this time.

You get the sense that the raw material of To the Wonder has potential to make a very strong movie but that Terrence Malick has cut the film in a way that dampens this material’s impact and mutes the emotions. There are at least a dozen breathtaking shots in To the Wonder and I find myself thinking about the film days later, recalling images from it the way one does a dream. All the more disappointing then that the actual experience of watching To the Wonder was such a chore.

The exception is Olga Kurylenko who, particularly in the film’s second half, gives a forceful performance. She is lonely and desperate for love, and cannot understand why the man who invited her to live with him continues to deny her any kind of real intimacy. In one scene, a friend (Romina Mondello) visits her and the two stroll through the wide streets of this flat Midwestern town (leisurely of course). The friend yells out. Where is everyone? Is this whole town dead? Where is the life? The passion? All valid questions.

- Steve Avigliano, 5/2/13

Best of 2011: My Top 10 Movies of 2011

The list below is of my favorite movies of 2011. I wrote the other day how determining the best movies in a given year can be tough because you can’t always tell whether or not a film will age well. Some movies get better and better the more you watch them. Others make a great first impression but might not hold up to multiple viewings. This list is a collection of first impressions. These are all movies that left a mark on me the first time I saw them. I’ll check back with them a few years down the road and see how they hold up.

In the meantime, most are on DVD or will be soon (and The Descendants is still in theaters now). So use the on demand/online streaming/DVD-in-the-mail service of your choice and check them out. (I’ll also share with you a well-kept secret of where to rent movies that I use all the time: the library. Most local libraries have large movie collections and get all the new DVDs. You might have to fight with the woman down the block who has a crush on Ryan Gosling in order to get your hands on a copy of The Ides of March but, hey, it’s free.)

Before we get to the Top 10, here are five films I admire that didn’t make the list: Another Earth, The Future, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Moneyball, Terri

10) Midnight in Paris (Original review)

Woody Allen’s globetrotting continues with Midnight in Paris, a breezy, time-traveling comedy starring Owen Wilson who, in a fine performance, splits the difference between his own comic persona and the neuroses of Mr. Allen. Those familiar with the major figures of art and literature in 1920s Paris (Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein and Salvador Dali, to name a few that appear here) will be delighted but you don’t have to get all the references to enjoy the film. Mr. Allen’s own love of these artists shines through every scene and Mr. Wilson is great fun to watch as he marvels at being transported to the bygone era he adores. A love letter to the city and a bittersweet (though mostly sweet) study of how nostalgia afflicts us all.

9) Take Shelter

Take Shelter is an absorbing psychological thriller about a blue collar Midwesterner, Curtis LaForche (Michael Shannon), on the cusp of a schizophrenic breakdown. Or is he? He begins having horribly realistic nightmares of an apocalyptic storm but are the dreams premonitions of some rapture to come, or is his mind descending into madness? Neither option bodes well for him and his family. The film, written and directed by Jeff Nichols, is engrossing because Curtis’s supernatural fears have real world consequences. When he becomes obsessed with renovating an old tornado shelter in the backyard, the expenditure puts a significant financial burden on his family. This is a beautifully shot, gradually paced and absolutely gripping movie.

8) A Dangerous Method (Original review) 

A Dangerous Method follows the professional and personal relationship of psychologists Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) and Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) but this is not a typical historical biopic. This is an exceptionally talky film; Jung and Freud’s discussions on the subtleties of psychoanalysis are only occasionally broken up by scenes of kinky sex between Jung and his patient-turned-student-turned-lover, Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley). Despite the dry nature of the material though, there is a current of excitement running through A Dangerous Method. These were intellectual innovators on the verge of changing the way the world thought about the human mind and director David Cronenberg elegantly captures that moment in this fascinating film.

7) The Descendants (Original review)

Alexander Payne’s films tell wonderful, human stories. Like previous Payne features Sideways and About Schmidt, The Descendants depicts a man facing a personal crisis, and does so with compassion and humor. After a boating accident puts his wife in a permanent coma, Matt King (George Clooney) is left alone to father his two daughters. Meanwhile, as the lone trustee to a huge estate, he faces pressure from the other side of his family to find a buyer for the property. The movie, set against a gorgeous, Hawaiian backdrop, has a keen sense of culture and history. It also ends on what might be my favorite final shot in a movie this year.

6) Attack the Block

The definition of what is cool is always changing and often we can look back and identify what sparked certain trends in coolness. Attack the Block is the sort of movie we’ll look back on and say, “Oh, yeah. That’s cool because Attack the Block did it first.” The movie follows a teen gang in inner city London who unwittingly find themselves fighting off an alien invasion. What’s kind of brilliant about it is that they react to this extraterrestrial contact precisely how you’d expect a bunch of fifteen-year-old boys to. When they kill their first alien, what do they do? They drag its carcass through the streets and show it off to a few girls before bringing it to the guy they buy weed from. Fast-paced, funny, sometimes gory, and featuring impressive creature effects. A promising debut from writer/director Joe Cornish.

5) Margin Call

An analyst for a powerful financial investment firm is laid off but before he leaves the building he hands a flash drive to one of his employees. “I think you should take a look at this,” he says. “Be careful.” That’s the set-up of Margin Call, which mostly takes place over one night as the gravity of the information on that drive sinks in – it contains calculations that predict the firm’s doom – and news travels up the ranks to the CEO. This is a tense film inspired by the 2008 financial crisis and successfully makes complex concepts accessible without dumbing them down. Writer/director J.C. Chandor seeks to do nothing less than question the morality of capitalism but never demonizes his characters. Instead, he invites us to ask ourselves: What would I do in this situation? Is jumping ship and saving myself the right thing to do? Characters in the film are always asking this but the notion of what is “right” turns out to be a very murky concept indeed.

4) Warrior

This is a powerful story about two estranged brothers – tormented Iraq War veteran Tommy (Tom Hardy) and Brendan (Joel Edgarton), a physics teacher and father of two – who return to their roots as mixed martial arts fighters. Tommy enlists the help of his father (Nick Nolte), a reformed alcoholic and Tommy’s former trainer, to prepare for an upcoming tournament. Brendan, meanwhile, starts participating in pickup matches to make quick cash and stall foreclosure on his house. You might be able to guess where this is going but Warrior is impressive in the way it does not simplify its characters’ complex relationships while still adhering to the crowd-pleasing formula of the fight genre. Audiences largely dismissed Warrior because of seeming similarities to The Fighter, an unfair fate considering it is even better than that film. This one blew me away.

3) Higher Ground

Higher Ground chronicles one southern woman’s relationship with religion, from her tenuous beginnings with evangelicalism and following her as she is born again and subsequently questions her faith. Though it features a fair amount of preaching, the movie itself never preaches. It approaches its characters with a critical eye and its subject matter with an open mind. Vera Farmiga, who stars in the film and makes her directorial debut, is careful not to condescend. Some members of the congregation are naive and old-fashioned but all of them are complex individuals, not stereotypes. The film shoulders big topics – sex, marriage, family, church and the role women play in all of those – but does so gracefully and without passing judgment. This is a quiet movie about the process of self-discovery; there are few grand, dramatic moments in it. Yet, in its subtle way, the film uncovers something true and leaves a lasting impression.

2) Beginners

Tone can be a delicate thing. Mike Mills’s Beginners finds just the right one though; it has an emotional frankness that does not soften its more tragic moments but also has a certain whimsy and love for life that is infectious. We meet Oliver (Ewan McGregor) at the start of a new relationship with Anna (Mélanie Laurent), a French actress he meets at a party. This is intercut with remembrances of his late father (Christopher Plummer) who, in the last years of his life, was diagnosed with cancer and came out of the closet, living as an openly gay man for the first time. The tender relationship between father and son is at the heart of the film but its best moments are in the embellishments Mr. Mills adds. Oliver has conversations with his father’s dog (who talks back through subtitles), recalls childhood memories of his mother (­­­­­Mary Page Keller) and reflects on the differences between his father’s time and the present. A loose, almost free associative structure helps to avoid melodrama. The film opens with the father’s death and moves backward, retracing the end of his life while also moving forward with Oliver’s developing romance and ending on a thoroughly optimistic note. This is a film with style and wit that left on me an imprint of its uniquely pleasant mood.

1) The Tree of Life (Original review)

Terrence Malick is one of the few filmmakers today making great literary art. His latest, The Tree of Life, has a poetic style, chasing moods, emotions and ideas rather than following a straightforward, linear narrative. The film is a major achievement, which is also to say it is not the most accessible or traditionally entertaining of films but here’s my advice if you are interested: Brace yourself for the abstractions of the extended cosmic prologue, which dramatizes the beginnings of the Universe. Know that the domestic scenes set in 1950s Texas suburbia that follow are rich in emotion and feature compassionate performances from Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain and newcomer Hunter McCracken. Let the mosaic of imagery and music wash over you. Don’t expect a conventional plot but look instead at the small, familial moments Mr. Malick creates and find parallels in your own life. The Tree of Life can be a profoundly moving experience if you’re in the right frame of mind for it. Terrence Malick has crafted a landmark in contemporary American cinema and, for my money, the year’s best film.

- Steve Avigliano, 2/25/12 

REVIEW: The Tree of Life

The Tree of Life (2011): Written and directed by Terrence Malick. Starring: Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain, Hunter McCracken and Laramie Eppler. Rated PG-13 (some thematic material). Running time: 138 minutes. 

4 stars (out of four)

The Tree of Life, the latest from writer/director Terrence Malick and winner of this year’s top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, seeks to explore nothing less than the existence of God and life itself. The film makes no attempt to hide its artistic pretensions or theological overtones, but it also surprises us in its emotional directness as it follows an American family in 1950s suburbia. This is an ambitious film with great heart to complement its philosophical pondering.

In the opening scenes, we learn about the death of one of the family’s three sons. He was a soldier and has died in battle. Filled with grief, his mother (Jessica Chastain) prays and asks the ever-vexing question, “Why, Lord?”

In an attempt to answer that question, the film takes us back to the beginning of time and we witness the origins of life. As Malick shows us celestial wonders and the development of the first single cell organisms, one might be reminded of the gradual pacing of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001. Indeed, the structure and approach of Malick’s film resembles 2001 in several ways. Both films begin their narratives in prehistoric times and end on decidedly abstract notes. Much like 2001, The Tree of Life contemplates the cosmos in an attempt to understand man’s place in the infinitude.

This portion of the film may get too abstract for some, but the patient viewer will find a wealth of genuinely human moments on the other side of the film’s ambitious prologue. Malick always returns to the humanity of his characters, symbolic though they may be. We see the fragmented memories of an infant, Jack, who grows into an adolescent (Hunter McCracken) and later an adult (Sean Penn) in the present day. As Jack ages, the film’s scenes become longer and gradually, a narrative forms. We learn about Jack’s contempt for his strict and authoritarian father (Brad Pitt), and the jealousy he feels toward his artistically gifted younger brother (Laramie Eppler). These relationships are not revealed in grand, dramatic scenes but through more intimate, familial moments – a conversation at the dinner table, a trip into town.

There is more, but the narrative defies summarization, itself trying to summarize the total experience of life. The film is fascinated by the impossibly large as it meditates on life, the universe and everything, but also takes the time to focus in on the smallest of details.

Each of these details are captured beautifully by Malick and his director of photography, Emmanuel Lubezki. Malick and Lubezki highlight the beauty of the natural world and find similar marvels in our man-made surroundings. The sun peeks through countless shots as the camera continuously moves upward, sky bound. Like the film’s characters, the camera is always looking to the heavens for an answer.

Structurally, the film does not unfold in scenes as much as interwoven moments that are connected by images and ideas rather than plot. Select shots remind us of others that came earlier and Malick invites us to consider all of the previous moments as new ones occur. Pulling these separate moments together, Malick creates a tapestry of life that occasionally drifts through dreams and fantasies with poetic vigor.

The performances in Tree of Life are uniformly strong which is impressive since Malick’s primary focus here is not on acting. Pitt, Chastain, and first-time actors McCracken and Eppler give their characters depth, conveying a great deal through subtle expressions and mannerisms. Many of the film’s major turning points hinge on nuances in the actors’ performances and yet the film never calls attention to the acting. Malick creates the illusion of dropping in on private moments.

At one point in the film, Jack does the same, watching a domestic quarrel through the window of a neighbor’s house, a self-referential moment that provides a key to understanding the film. We catch intimate glimpses of this one family only to find details that recall our own lives. The film captures people during the self-discovery of their humanity and watches as they find those discoveries alternately thrilling and terrifying.

The Tree of Life is a lyrical film that has the ambition and emotional richness of a great novel. It asks the Big Questions: How can God allow for suffering to exist alongside life’s beauties? To what degree should love and faith guide our lives? For what purpose were we created? In short, “Why, Lord?”

- Steve Avigliano, 6/15/11