I saw "The Tree of Life" tonight, and I'm not really sure what I think about it.
For its first week, it showed exclusively at an art house theatre, but was shown at the multiplexes starting tonight. Sparsely attended, several people walked out early on.
It is certainly visually stunning, yet perplexing. Light on dialogue and even lighter on plot, I suppose it's very personal to filmmaker Terrence Malick, in that it seems to be his own brand of spirituality. Some of the images will stay with me. Especially one sequence showing a huge flock of birds from a great distance as they swoop and swerve, almost as a single unit following some mathematical formula. (I once witnessed this exact same phenomenon on a much smaller scale, in a tidal pool of tiny minnows, and was completely mesmerized by it.)
I thought Brad Pitt was very good (he produced the film as well), and had a hard time imagining Heath in the role. In fact, I thought Heath might have been better in Sean Penn's role. Lots of wordless closeups.
Creation and loss and grace. I'm still not sure what it's all about, but I'm glad I saw it.