Reviews

Ambitious and imperfect, stunning and overwhelming, profound and perplexing, Terrence Malick's mediation on human life and our place in the universe is one of the most arguably exciting movies to come along in years.

Told in the most of non-linear ways, this drama focuses, pretty acutely, on a family in 1950's Texas. We watch their everyday joys and see how, one by one, they try to cope with not just set backs, but the worst of experiences. Slit into this continuing story is a flash ahead to contemporary times, as one of the sons, now grown, spends a key day shaken by his memories. But Malick is not content to do things the usual way. He also insists on trying to put all of this into perspective, allowing for how this family tale fits into the life of the universe itself. What, he lets them think, is their relationship with God and why does the Almighty allow bad things to happen? And, in the grand history of the planet, what does all of it matter?

By Joanna Langfield, from The Movie Minute

The Tree of Life may be abstract and unconventional, but it's staggeringly beautiful and admirably demands its audience to think long and hard about what's being presented. Perhaps the closest comparison is 2001: A Space Odyssey, although only time will tell if Malick's decades-in-the-making meditation on existence gains the masterpiece status afforded to Stanley Kubrick's space epic. Love it or hate it, The Tree of Life won't be forgotten in a hurry.

By Simon Reynolds, from Digitalspy.co.uk

Few American filmmakers are as alive to the splendor of the natural world as Terrence Malick, but even by his standards, "The Tree of Life" represents something extraordinary.

By Justin Chang, from Variety