The Tree of Life

My 5 word reaction to this film was: An ode to progeny, perhaps.

Malick's vision produced some haunting sequences in this film, though jarring at times, and mystifying, but there's enough "downtime" during the film for you to review what's come before, and what's happening on the screen to piece together such a fractured narrative.

There's this thread running through the film on the creation of life, and the nurturing of it, and the requirements to keep the sustainment of life amongst one's progeny, to see it fullfilled and unfulfilled.  It's not always pretty and pure, there's some hardships, heart ache, and hateful times through the course of one's life to fuel the search for meaning in living and death, coming to acceptance after a long journey of emotional hurt and loss.  There's even some bits on intentional or unintentional mercy at the dawn of time sequence.

It's weird to give this film a rating, as it does run a little long, but its visuals and imagery will linger in your subconscious much longer than the run-of-the-mill movie that exist solely to entertain for a couple of hours.

Brad Pitt gives a nuanced performance of a father at odds with realities of a family and his own dreams.  The 3 child actors gave solid performances as the 3 sons, and their performances felt very natural and lived-in.  Jessica Chastain, as the mother, was almost dreamy in her presence in the film at times, as I felt she was more of an ideal, than a character for Pitt's character to be a foil to in their family.  She provided more of the emotional touchstone responses through their family's journey through life.

That being said, I give it 3 stars, or a grade of B.