The Tree of Life

This film wasn’t really on my movie-junkie radar until mon cher ami, Mr Sailor suggested that I watch it. He had warned me though not to expect to just see ‘a movie’ and thought I could survive the couple of hours. It took me quite a while to finally see this film. As much as I love (good)surprises, I just couldn’t help but reading online reviews, hoping to get a peak of what goodies are in store. Turns out it wasn’t a smart move as I found out that people seemed to think that the film was trying too hard and a little tad too pretentious. That said, I still thought I should give it a go.

The Tree of Life started very beautifully with a very dreamy-like narration, kinda put me at ease. However, the vibe was very indie-ish which I have to admit wasn’t easy for me to wrap my head around such idea, knowing that there was Brad Pitt(who was/is so mainstream, so Hollywood) coming. Thanks to the kids’ natural expressions, I really felt a touch of reality that you could usually get from indie films. I don’t wanna sound so stereotypical or cliche but when I watch movies, especially the mainstream ones, kids always look so naive and clueless, which I thought was kind of ridiculous. I mean seriously, kids could have never been more rebellious. Let’s face it, they don’t have high egocentricity for nothing. I wanted to get out of the house when I was seven so that I could work at a local bridal store. That was ridiculous and insane, and I knew it was gonna drive my dad nuts. It didn’t happen, obviously. ;p

Well, kids are not naive, they may be easily confused but they certainly are not clueless. And I’m glad that this aspect of life was portrayed frankly in this film. But what made the portrayal even more brilliant is the fact that the rebel was not that in-your-face. I would say it was more subtle, like when Jack O’Brien (Hunter McCracken) agreed with whatever Mr O’Brien (Brad Pitt) was saying, yet he did it very hesitantly. I think we all do that, there are times when we seriously don’t agree with our love ones yet we just simply don’t wanna hurt their feelings by disagreeing, then all we do is nodding hesitantly.

The development of the story in this film might be a little too slow for some people(or me for that matter), but I guess that’s what life should be. No rush, which apparently is what’s happening today. We all wish things could go a little slower in life these days, but that’s just not how they work. Sad, but true. Perhaps The Tree of Life was a little break that we need from all that rush.

If I could read a message from TToL in a sentence, it would be something like ‘don’t rush, take your time, and learn about life’.

p/s: no one should take things too seriously when watching this film especially during the twenty minutes psychedelic footage of world’s evolution, otherwise it might drive you crazy. and don’t get too analytical about it because I kinda did just that, definitely was not a smart thing to do. but then I was like, ‘what the heck, screw Brad Pitt, let’s have Christopher Kane’s mood board’. :)

Christopher Kane galaxy frocks (Cheap Chic Obsession)

C’est magnifique, non?