mariahopkins-18946 This is Terence Mallick's magnus opus in my opinion- and yes, I am aware of the fact that this is Malick I speak of, a man who has made some masterpieces. Tree of Life encompasses everything- from the search of purpose and meaning to the beginning and end of time itself. Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain and the kids all are more than competent and would have jumped at the chance of working with a master. Beautifully shot as only Malick can(the camera flows so smoothly) and containing what I consider one of the most important sequences(beginning of time) ever put on film The Tree of Life is a work of art.

michaeldwaynedias This is my first review on IMDb. I just had to write this review because this "film" was seriously awful.I dismiss anyone who rated this film highly as pretentious and empty-headed. There were just too many scenes that didn't make any sense. Including, but not limited to Jessica Chastain floating by the tree, the child sending his mother's gown down the river, and the scene at the end where all these randoms start frolicking around.I appreciate unique and creative films but this one was just too... nonsensical. Utterly nonsensical. The point of the movie is never really made clear. It was only until I read the synopsis that I learned that Sean Penn, a celebrated actor who barely appears in 5% of the film, is actually the kid as a grown man. Either you have to be a genius to pick up on that, or I'm just too stupid to have figured that out, or I accidentally missed some scene in this film where Penn's character actually tells the audience "oh I'm the kid btw."A film should never be given a high rating solely based on artsiness or high production value. A film should have, more than anything, a plot. Which I never picked up on in those agonizing 2 hours and 19 minutes.

cinemajesty Film Review: "The Tree Of Life" (2011)This 32 Million Dollars of production expenses absorbing motion picture, shot during the year of 2008 on several camera systems stretching from classic 35mm film stock cameras as Arriflex 435 to HD super slow-motion Phantom manufactured digital camera systems handled by Academy Award Winning cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, provided with a shot-list loosely based on an original script by Director Terrence Malick, who since that day forward, worked with Hollywood Stars of the highest order to threat together emotions in time and space, creating a motion picture of illusions with hardly any full circling character arc, instead leaving the characters to the magic of an infinite screening in single moments of truth.Since his twenty-year-break from filmmaking between "Days of Heaven" (1978) and "The Thin Red Line" (1998), arguably his most accomplished work of cinema, Director Terrence Malick does not seem interested in putting an effort in to connect shots and scenes to sequences as Director David Lean (1908-1991) as in "The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957) would have done to let the audience take a fully embodied emotion home for the time being. "The Tree of Life" does nothing of this order. The picture, over two years in post-production to be put on hold by the end of 2010 in order to have a world premiere screening on May 16th 2011 at the 64th Edition of the Cannes Film Festival, where the enchanted cast, surrounding conservative couple playing Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain in Texas, USA of the 1950s and Sean Penn as the lone wolf in glass-steel canyons of the top-management working class in the 2000s, leading to gathering of all characters and all time zones on a beach with no further explanations then just leaving the audience under the musical score of Alexandre Desplat to themselves for a cinema-loving-minority to witness and to be experienced again and again in future screenings."The Tree of Life" has not become a motion picture that made an impact over the last six and half years that have past since winning the Palme D'Or over "Persona Non Grata" punished Lars von Trier's "Melancholia" in the year 2011 of further cinematic extravaganza, which certainly lets Director Terrence Malick's kaleidoscopic film on human transcendence and consequences of childhood-implanted domestic violence stand apart from the rest in that year's circuit with signature-defining shot collections in hours and hours of raw footage of free-spirited actors that haunt the director for years to come toward his latest entrance with the same directorial technique "Song to Song" (2017), which took him four years to complete into a let-go two-hour-editorial presented in March 2017.© 2017 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

benjaminburt It's really hard to give Tree of Life a grade on IMDb, because this movie defies convention. It asks you to (metaphorically) stand on your head to watch it. How can you compare it to other films, when most films, even if they don't have a three-act structure, have a forward-moving narrative. Tree of Life is a film for people who thought 2001: a Space Odyssey was a little too on-the-nose. It feels like, at times, it's trying to bewilder its audience or spite them. For large portions of the movie, any semblance of narrative structure is thrown out. If you want a film to challenge you, this is it. This film will challenge you like there ain't no tomorrow.Maybe you have to watch this film for some reason or another. Well, if you're struggling to maintain interest, let me give you some keys to getting a new understanding. First off, this is just my interpretation, but just go with it. First off, consider the main boy's relationship with his father, and compare it to his relationship with God. Another thing, notice how bacteria in the beginning branch out to form a "Tree of Life," and trees hang overhead for most of the movie. Consider the use of water as a metaphor. Ask if the film is advocating belief in God or rejecting it. Ask the meaning of the mother, of the father's trip, or death, or the street. As you consider the film in new light, you may feel new emotions, and that's probably ultimately the goal of the film.If movies bore you pretty easily, stay away from this one. But if you like films that challenge you and eschew logic, this may be the film for you.