To The Wonder

[Frederico Fellini]

Yeah.... But you can't PAUSE the movie to check your facebook when you're watching it in the theater... Well, at least not yet.

[Drenk]

And HD:

[Drenk]

I've seen it...


Tree of Life is one of my favorite films.

But To The Wonder isn't good. Modage was right. About everything. (I don't think it's the worst movie of the year, but what he wrote about the film itself is right.)

(I've loved some seconds, though.)

[Drenk]

It's a self-parody. Really. Olga and Rachel dancing. Just that. Again and again. And again, yes. And again. Someone was sleeping at my right, when he opened his eyes, he must have felt weird, thinking he didn't sleep at all, because it was the same thing again. And again. And Ben Affleck being here, wondering of Argo or thinking "What am I doing here?" I mean, I love when Jessica Chastain is dancing, moving her hands, etc, in Tree of Life; I think it's beautiful. I feel it. Here, it's just ridiculous. Empty.

I loved Javier Bardem in it, his character and, actually, all the others characters (an italian woman is fantastic.) If you care about Olga, you might enjoy it. I was connected to the childhood in Tree of Life and the not-loving (but loving in his way) father and it worked. It's Tree of Life Face B without the magic.

Waiting for someone to love it here, now.

I'm a big fan of Malick, I wasn't really anticipating that movie, though, but...I thought he could show everything. He can't.

[BB]

While I wouldn't say I LOVED it, I certainly enjoyed it and, honestly, I can't see how it's all that different from everything Malick has done since TTRL. Not to say Malick is above reproach, but TTW is so much of a piece with the rest of his stuff it's bizarre to me that fans would turn on it. If Tree of Life is among your favourite films, I find it bewildering that you would hate this one.

It's a pretty little character piece. A minor work, sure, but what's so wrong with that?

Edit -- re: the complaints about dancing. That's what women do in Malick movies. Every primary female character in every one of his films dances and canters and twirls. It's silly when you think about it. But not any sillier here. Furthermore, what do you have against dancing?

[Drenk]

I didn't hate it. It's Malick, I love him. But it was an empty movie (most of the time) about emptiness. The disappointment made me sound harsh.

It's everything like Tree of Life but I don't connect to it. For the dancing, here, I thought I would not mind, because I love that in Malick films; but when you don't care about the characters, the dancing is annoying. When it's just a dancing body, I don't care. I had the impression (maybe wrong impression) that Olga was a big fan of Malick, so she tried to be the best for Malick, making it look like a parody sometimes. (I'm sorry to write that, it used to make me angry to read about the "dancing" in Malick's movies in a negative way; even in The New World, my favorite with Tree, I didn't have the impression that I was seeing the characters dancing all the time. I don't even know if they dance a lot in The New World because, yes, I love dancing.)

SPOILERS

And, I know TTW is not really about love, more about the lack of love, but I don't understand why Olga and Rachel love Ben. He's a wall.
It was working for me when the characters were speaking: Olga and her italian friend, Javier and the people of the town, one short moment between Ben and Javier.
When not speaking: Olga cheating Ben with the skinny guy, really weird and fascinating moment; and Javier Bardem voiceover about Christ at the end.


Nothing wrong about the "minor film". But I thought Tree codes were not the right thing for this film; and it's an unpleasant experience to see what you loved about a movie minus the emotion. What "worked."

But yes, being a Malick fan, I see that I should love this. I'll see it again. Maybe it will change.

[ElPandaRoyal]

[BB]

But yes, being a Malick fan, I see that I should love this.

There are some very light SPOILERS below.

It's not that I'm saying you should love this film. Just that I don't really understand your reasons for not liking it. I didn't feel this emptiness you describe -- at least not any more so than other Malick films. I understand these criticisms when generally applied to his work, but to me this film is not enough of a departure to make it a target, and is not so exactly similar as to incur charges of self-parody. How can you be cool with compassionate dinosaurs and "that's where God lives" and not be cool with a lady goofily dancing in a grocery store?

As for not understanding why the women love Affleck (look at him and tell me you don't love him), I could ask the same thing about Brad Pitt's character in TOL, Christian Bale in TNW, or the Bell character in TTRL. Sure, Affleck's pretty stony, but it's not as if he's without redeeming and attractive qualities. He's good with her kid, he's hunky as hell (as are the others), there's an obvious passion there. We get a glimpse of the good times. I think that with this impressionistic style, these sort of details just have to be taken at face value. We're only getting moments, not a well-rounded story with clear motivations. I understand completely why this would frustrate some people, but I'd think a Malick fan wouldn't get hung up on it.

[Drenk]

"That's where God lives" is not ridiculous. It's Texas. The fifties. And dinosaurs existed. After the Big Bang.

I've seen it with a friend, we both love Tree of Life and the rest of his filmography, and we thought TWW was soulless. Watching this movie was like meeting a woman you used to love, wondering what was so special about her. The same cooking but no taste.


Anyway, two more movies are coming. I hope the emotion will be back. Meanwhile, I'll watch Tree of Life again.

[socketlevel]

SMALL SPOILS

I saw this at the red carpet gala presentation back in September at TIFF. i honestly don't know if it's changed at all. I didn't write about it then because I wanted to wait for everyone on the site to have had the chance to respond. as I've said before, I'm a huge malick fan but was very disappointed with the tree of life. in many ways To the Wonder seems to still be on autopilot; yet another iteration of the same thought, often pretentious. however with that said, i liked it, at least a lot more than the previous effort.

after the film was over Olga and malick's wife came on the stage to talk a little about the film. gotta say i really dug Olga because she talked about the making of the film candidly, and in front of about a thousand people, admitted she really didn't like what Terrence malick did with the final product.

she went on to explain that malick's direction was that her character suffered from bipolar disorder. she would act frantic in scenes, taking her rage to an extreme and then in others she would be sweet and understanding or depressed. She was a woman of these extremes. She argued malick made her appear like a free spirit in the final film, marginalizing her complexity (in in turn what it took to deliver this performance) to simple abstract poetry (doing his normal pensive arms in the wind/grass thing, her words not only mine... but i might have fallen in love with her that moment). She was upset the disorder her character was put by the wayside. i do believe it's still there, but I also understand her concern.

I fell in love with someone very similar a few years ago, and maybe my own baggage brought both subjective insight and appreciation for the film. It felt very heart wrenching and cathartic to see the essence of such a love be told on the big screen.

Malick's wife talked about how for him it was a film that was about losing love, finding another love to find and lose the original love again. how love ebbs and flows as we all try to find our way.

so despite the forced malick artiness that seems to be his only go-to these days, on a personal level i connected to the film, something i sadly wish i had for the tree of life.

It was also nice to see a malick film set exclusively in contemporary times, without a backdrop to give context on his style.

[Kellen]

[Ravi]

[matt35mm]

Same designer, apparently.

[The Ultimate Badass]

I love how Malick has suddenly decided to become crazy prolific. He's doing the best stuff of his life and I want more of it. He's not going out like Kubrick with decades between movies and dying with a movie he may or may not have finished. Malick has seemed to have found his voice and it's utterly fucking beautiful. More, more, more.

[Pubrick]

Malick has seemed to have found his voice and it's utterly fucking beautiful. More, more, more.

malick's "voice" hasn't changed since the 70s. in fact it emerged almost fully formed.

if the abysmal reviews for this film are anything to go by, the opposite of what you're saying is actually true -- that is he's over using his voice and it's becoming croaky and weird.

in any event, the kubrick comparison could easily have been switched around if malick had died before making the thin red line. in the time he went AWOL kubrick made 3 movies (even if not completely finishing the last one). That alone is more features than Malick had made in his entire career up to that point.

it's good that he's trying to be woody allen, but i'll withhold judgment until i get to steal this dud to see how much quality is being lost in the mad rush.