Malick branches out to capture the big picture

TWO things may seem off-putting about The Tree of Life. One is that the first UK distributor couldn’t wait to get shot of it. The second is that this film attempts to explain life via a director (Terrence Malick) who is notoriously woozy and elliptical. A lot happens at the start – news of a son killed in battle is broken to the O’Brien family, there’s a flash-forward to brooding surviving son Jack (a battered Sean Penn) striding moodily around glassy skyscrapers, and eventually a flashback, way way back to the Big Bang and the creation of life at microscopic level.

Eventually the film settles down to a fractured evocation of a 1950s childhood that I’m guessing is not unlike Malick’s own. Mr O’Brien (Brad Pitt) is a bit of a martinet who lectures his kids on self-improvement and the importance of looking out for number one, but also loves music and his boys. Mrs O’Brien (Jessica Chastain) is gentler and does a lot of running around barefoot, but since Malick is presenting her through the filter of idealised child adoration, that’s probably fair enough.

Malick captures memories of childhood and awkward parental relationships with precision. A scene where young Jack (Hunter McCracken) and his brother gradually make up from an argument is especially acute.

The Tree of Life made it to cinemas because Brad Pitt agreed to star in it, and in an era in which even the so-called independent cinema is ruled by a cowardly herd instinct, you really have to admire Malick’s guts for making an uncompromising, spiritually minded film. Yes, it’s flawed – including keening voiceovers that don’t know when to shut up – but The Tree of Life is both a visually enthralling and a thrillingly ambitious attempt to grasp at a very big picture.

On general release from Friday

SIOBHAN SYNNOT