At some point before 2011, Terrence Malick, the reclusive director best known for Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line, decided to double his entire output of films in under three years. Between 1973 and 2005, he made exactly four films. But since 2011, he's completed two films and has two more in development – all featuring the biggest stars in the world. The 2011 Best Picture nominee Tree of Life starred Brad Pitt, who co-produced, and Sean Penn. His 2013 feature, To The Wonder, starred Ben Affleck and Rachel McAdams. His two films in production now both star Christian Bale and Natalie Portman and may both be out next year.
But he could be paying a costly price for this productivity. He used to be notorious for taking too long editing – supposedly Days of Heaven took over a year to edit. And he's also well-known for completely cutting stars out even after they've spent weeks making the film. By moving at such a high speed, fans have a reason to be worried that these might not all turn out to be the masterpieces we'd hoped for. While The Tree of Life is one of his best films, To The Wonder is nowhere near that level. It stands to become a footnote in his filmography.
To The Wonder stars Affleck as Neil, an Oklahoma man who for some unexplained reason went to Paris. There, he meets and falls in love with the beautiful Marina, played by Olga Kurylenko, who has a young daughter. But he has to go back to Oklahoma and she decides to go along, where things do not go as they hoped. Marina's daughter has trouble getting used to it and Marina herself wonders how committed Neil is to their relationship.
Marina does find solace in one person – Father Quintana (Javier Bardem). She goes to him occasionally, but Quintana's role in this film is a relative mystery. His questioning of his faith is juxtaposed by Neil and Marina's story as if to say devotion to another person is as questionable as a devotion to religion.
At one point, Marina does briefly go back to France after her visa expires. At that point, Neil meets Jane and we finally see Rachel McAdams in the movie. However, this is only for a few moments. His affair with Jane is short-lived once the topic of marriage steps in. Ultimately, he'd rather marry Marina to bring her back to the States than live with a girl he had known since high school.
While this does seem like a more straightforward plot than Tree of Life's wandering narrative about the meaning of life and the soul-searching of one man, it isn't. Nothing is easy to come by in Malick's cinema – scenes abruptly end, there are ellipses and moments where tension should begin amount to nothing. In one shot, it looks like Marina and Jane bump shoulders, but they never face each other and don't say a word. If you blink you would miss it. To The Wonder is a film of peaks and valleys, making any actual action on screen jarring and surprising. Images of beautiful fields of wheat or Paris monuments are interrupted by the story, as if the little conflict between Marina and Neil means absolutely nothing compared to nature.
I don't know why a movie star today would want to rush to work with Malick, as narrative and acting seems to take a secondary role in his movies, particularly here. While I will applaud Affleck for this lovely, restrained performance, it is not Malick's focus. In fact, of the four leads, Kurylenko gets most of the attention and spends a good portion of the film spinning. And she does that because it just looks so beautiful to see her spin in a long, flowing dress with a light source shining behind her.
These actors are also playing second fiddle to light. As a film that chooses to spend much of its time with religion, light plays an important part. Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, who will likely win an Oscar for this year's Gravity, continues to show how he is the perfect successor to Maclik's previous cameramen. His images highlight the differences between the two worlds of Paris and Oklahoma, but we still feel linked to each part through the use of light.
On Home Video: To The Wonder was not picked up by any of the big studios, despite the star wattage. Instead, Magnolia Pictures scored distribution and used the current model popular for indie films. It never received a wide theatrical release, instead going to Video on Demand. Magnolia released it on Blu-ray last month and it just surfaced on Netflix to stream.
To The Wonder didn't feel as impressive as The Tree of Life for me on first viewing, but its beauty is overwhelming, even if the plot isn't as grand. It sets forth plenty of questions and you are always aware that Malick's point is not to show a traditional arc as seen in movies today. Rather, he's creating a mood here and is asking for more of a commitment from his audience than anyone else. It's not easy to sit through, but it is magical.
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