To the Wonder
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Starring: Olga Kurylenko, Ben Affleck, Javier Bardem, Rachel McAdams
Directed by: Terrence Malick
Running time: 113 minutes
Parental guidance: partial nudity, sexual situations
Opens Friday, April 26 at: Forum cinema
MONTREAL - Terrence Malick has never released two films so close together. A year after his brilliant yet divisive The Tree of Life (you either loved it or hated it ? this critic fell into the former camp), he returns with the similarly themed To the Wonder.
Your reaction to The Tree of Life will serve as a good barometer as to how you?ll react to his latest, which feels like a modern sequel of sorts. The Tree of Life starred Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain as a ?50s couple basking in marital bliss before falling into a swirl of arguments and existential drama. What made the film so fascinating was the reach of its imagination, which ranged from the origins of the universe to the oppressive anger of Pitt?s father figure, the anguish of Chastain?s flustered housewife, and the confusion and curiosity of their young sons.
To the Wonder also revolves around a troubled relationship, this time between Neil (Ben Affleck) and Marina (Olga Kurylenko). Neil is a brooding American visiting Paris, while Marina is a French demoiselle fuelled on joie de vivre, living with her 10-year-old daughter.
Malick picks up where he left off, borrowing The Tree of Life?s impressionistic cinematography techniques and dream-sequence-style editing. Emmanuel Lubezki?s hand-held camera is always on the move, often low to the ground (catching trees and sunsets in the background), and it loves Kurylenko, chasing her through Paris streets, fields, beaches and backyards.
From the beginning, one senses problems: Neil barely speaks or smiles, while Marina is a romantic at heart. She asks him to marry her, in the film?s loose-knit voice-over, but he won?t bite. They move to the U.S., where Neil works at an unnamed job in the oil industry ? like much of this film, it?s not really clear.
Marina is unhappy in the U.S., as is her daughter, but they stick it out for a while. Insert shots of characters walking through their empty suburban home, denoting the emotional void between them. Rachel McAdams plays Neil?s old flame, and Javier Bardem is a priest who tends to the town?s less fortunate when not battling demons of his own. (Chastain and Rachel Weisz reportedly also shot scenes for the film, but were left on the cutting room floor.)
The message seems to be that love is a bitch, but something gets lost in the translation as pouts and long faces are interspersed with moments of forced passion. Malick is on cruise control. He plunges into the melodrama of relationships, but forgets to make us care.
Affleck?s character is too remote, and so becomes a clich? (yeah, yeah, distant man with the wandering eye), as does Kurylenko?s passionate pixie (so French!). We are left with a titillating style exercise that pales in comparison to the splendour and depth of Malick?s previous effort.
tdunlevy@montrealgazette.com
Twitter: @tchadunlevy
Source: http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/movie-guide/Movie+review+Wonder/8293947/story.html
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