The Tree of Life

I know a guy who considers this one of his favorite movies of all time, and some kind of beautiful religious experience. Popular opinion has cast it off as two hours of pointless whispering in front of pretty shots. My thoughts lie somewhere in the middle. Had I not been unwisely caffeinated last night, there's no way I ever would have made it through the two-plus-hour movie without falling asleep. It really is just a bunch of whispering most of the time. There is also no discernible plot whatsoever. I can easily see how so many people could despise a movie like this. Some days, I could even be one of them.

But last night, for whatever reason, this movie just worked for me. I'm not ready to call it the greatest thing I've ever seen, or even the best movie of 2011 (Drive, no question), but consider me aligned with the "yeah, this is a good movie" camp. The question is, why? I think I'm just impressed with how well the movie manages to be about all the things it tries to be about. It's about life, family, space, and time. It's about spirituality. It's about childhood and the loss of innocence. Regret, too, maybe. And possibly heaven? I'm not even sure. But there are dinosaurs in it. And lots and lots of beautiful footage. And this movie is able to be about all of these things and include all of these things because it has no plot. No plot whatsoever, and very little dialogue.

But it worked. For me, at least. Last night, at least. If you've got the patience - not the temporal patience, as it's only two hours long - but the kind of patience that lets you just sit there and take in a movie where very little happens but everything is beautiful, give this a try. It's visual poetry, and not all poetry is for everyone.