I walked into the cinema to see Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life not really knowing what to expect, mainly going through curiosity from having read raving reviews to tales of festival crowds booing.
Although the plot can be quite confusing, as well as having a longish running time with sparse dialogue (typical for a Malick feature) this was made up for by it's outstanding beauty. It was a delight to watch something so well made that simple shots of water shooting out a hose or trees blowing in the wind can seem to delightful. I did notice a few people walk out of the cinema, mainly during lengthy initial scenes of the earths formation (I was also at this point hoping that this wasn't the way the film would continue).
By the end I thought I knew what I had just watched, then after researching more when I got home I understood the plot a lot better. What I do know for certain is that after leaving the cinema and for the rest of that evening I was left feeling happy and content, in continued amazement at the visual creativity.
Although Malick does sometimes receive criticism for the number of years it takes him to release something new...when he does, he does it very well indeed!
