In the
minds of many, Terrence Malick’s career has gone from missed to over-stated in
the last decade. Just look at the Rotten Tomatoes or what his actors think of him.
Malick’s focus has shifted from plot and dialogue to scenery and picture,
leaving many fans of film in a hazy befuddlement after watching The New World, The Tree of Life, or especially his latest, To the Wonder. Some have called his 2013 film self-parody, or an
expensive-looking commercial, but those criticisms are shallow and not worth
listening to, really. They substitute
personal taste and snarky jabs in the stead of even attempting to unpack a film’s
intention and themes. That type of criticism dumbs down the conversation and,
in the end, belongs on dorm room floors with bongs and self-inflated thrusts of
undergrad faux-philosophy[i]
and art criticism[ii].
There is
something to be said for the film’s flaws, though. To the Wonder is Malick’s most impressionistic and ethereal film
yet, which leaves a lot of unanswered questions as to what is going on in the
film. The story floats between Neil (Ben Affleck) and Marina’s (Olga Kurylenko)
relationship, Neil and Jane’s (Rachel McAdams) relationship, and Father Quintana
(Javier Bardem) and God’s relationship without setting strict boundaries of
where the stories begin and end. The characters are practically silent, even,
with even less voice-over than one would expect from a Malick film. Everyone
flows in and out of constant states of loneliness and false connections. No one
in this story feels connected to anyone else, and all they want is that
connection. They want to better understand what it is to be someone else, what
it is to be one with someone else, and to understand God, if there is even a
God. By the end of the story, no one learns anything, because we can’t ever
truly learn how to avoid these feelings unless they are delusional. Malick is
merely asking the about these truths, as are his characters. They look into the
vast beauty of the world for answers.
At least
we get beauty. And actual thought on these vast ideas.
The
problems with To the Wonder come at
whether or not people find value in these meditations. The naysayers are types
of people who crave energy, characterization, plot, dramatic arch and/or
structure. If Malick’s meditations are disinteresting to some, then this movie
is not for them, which is fine. Personal taste (or more obviously in our
negative culture, distaste) is a way we define ourselves. Some people listen to
Death Grips, some people listen to Handel[iii]
compositions, and some people are eclectic and listen to both. Some people
think Irrational Games’s Bioshock:
Infinite is a fantastic video game that was worth the 5 year wait thanks to
its emphasis on story, while others think it is a crap 1st person
shooter that is overly serious[iv].
The key point is that whether not a movie is for someone or not is different
from what the film is trying to accomplish and what it does in fact accomplish.
Malick is
most definitely reaching for those unanswerable questions in his latest film,
as he was in his Academy Award nominated, Palm d’Or-winning The Tree of Life. He packs To the Wonder with similar tricks and
tropes, but the ideas he are reaching for are much less optimistic and hopeful.
His characters in The Tree of Life
were sad in their own way, but by the end of the film, they saw a version of
heaven and felt beauty and together at last. Here in To the Wonder, we are left with uncertainty and oscillating and unreliable
relationships between people who know what they want, but not how to achieve
that goal.
And they
never learn. They probably will never learn. But they try. They dance in
fields, walk amongst buffalo, witness the strange elegance of sea turtles,
exist in a constant state of sunset, touch beautiful stain glass windows in
churches, make love, kiss one another’s feet in humility, throw furniture in a
rage, clean up the messes silently, and repeat. It sounds banal, but it is not.
These moments, small and large, are where we show our true selves in real life.
Do we stop and smell the roses, or do we run past? It is hard to tell what the
characters do, but those moments where they take in the world around them, they
are obviously at their happiest. Marina and Neil are never happier than when
they are experiencing the beauty of the world around them, and never sadder
than when at home, doing nothing. Neil and Jane work when they watch the horses
run on her ranch, but they also fall apart as Neil and Marina do. Father
Quintana is helping people by giving them the comfort organized religion
offers, but when he is alone, he avoids the world as much as he can because it
pains him to see the mockeries that he believes God thrusts on his flock.
By the
end of the film, we see there is no end. I’m wondering if Neil and Marina will
not be together again, or Neil and Jane. Like Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise/Before Sunset films, Neil
could meet with these women forever, only to be disappointed by the result and
unable to connect again. Even during the film they leave one another and
reunite, even to marry. The perpetual nature of the relationships, for better
or for worse, feels true to life. Malick’s focus on picture and scene over
characters also harkens to Resnais’s Last
Year at Marienbad, a film about beauty, façade, and puzzles which tells its
story by looking at beautiful architecture, shallow but elaborate façades, and
contains many games which acts as to further puzzle, but also at times
enlighten, the viewer of the film. I don’t know if Malick had Linklater or
Resnais on his mind as he made To the
Wonder, but they, especially Malick+Resnais, are in the same conversation,
for sure, for ambiguous filmmaking.
This may
not be Malick’s best film (it’s not) but he is going further and further into
his own style. I have no doubt that he will become even more experimental as
his strangely accelerating career continues. He is currently editing 5 films,
and to think he once went 20 years without a film between Days of Heaven and The Thin
Red Line. We live in a world where our entertainment and art is becoming
more obvious and cleanly plotted, so a film like To the Wonder feels like a breath of fresh air. I in no way want every film to be like this,
without a standard plot or even dialogue, but I appreciate and enjoy this one.
Chances are, though, that Malick does not care if you make your choice and not
pay to see his movie, which is your right[v].
Malick is making movies for himself, and I’m happy to be along for the right
until his next long hiatus.
I give To
the Wonder a decent 8 out of 10.
[i] Kind of ironic that
this is one of the big criticisms labeled against Malick, huh?
[ii]
Keep in mind, I
just graduated college myself. So feel free to call me out for my own
pretentiousness. I’m *this* close to adding a winky emoticon to this blog post.
[iii] I like Death Grips and
Handel.
[iv] I think it rocks. Maybe
Kyle will review it soon for YPOIW?
