Tuesday, 3 April 2012

Does He not send flies to the wound He should heal?

The Tree of Life (2011)
We are left wondering what is happening a good hour into the movie. First, Brad Pitt (set it 1950s) and his wife receive news, not in words but by their expressions that one of their son (the second) has died. Then the characters go into a soul searching mode and the movie goes into a frenzy of cinematographic extragavanza of abstract cinematographic adventure with psychedelic hue of sky, clouds, erupting volcano, waterfalls, electron microscopic views of organelles in a cell, dinasours, Sean Penn in the present time in mammoth building, back to the time when Brad Pitt becomes a first time father accompanied by excellent musical background. One by one the sons are born and the movie shows them growing, learning to bond with nature and siblings, their first fall, exposure to death through death of a fish, a Christian upbringing under a strict father Brad Pitt who believes the regimental disciplinarian way of doing things...Father teaches him way of the world reminding his children to be tough, not to repeat his mistake of an unfilled ambition of becoming an accomplished musician.
In the coming of age era in his early teens, the eldest (Jack) has issues with his father whom he despises. He is trying make sense of the concept of God and why He has no control over some apparently bad happenings like when a boy drowns in a public pool.
At the height of his anger, he secretly wished that his father was dead...
Later, the father loses his job and the family moves another town. Now the father has also conflicts within himself. He could not understand why he had to go through such a predicament for he had been a good servant of God, paying tithe as due!
Then we are brought came back to the future to the adult Jack (Sean Penn) walking aimlessly, still unable to come at terms with the death of his brother, on the beach like a weary executive, in complete business suit. He meets up with the rest of family (as the were in the 1950s) and everybody seem happy with each other. They seem to be wandering in another dimension (like in heaven or something like that!).
To be honest, it is an abstractly experimental movie with mostly voice overs and its powerful messages presented by the director is his own creative way. The take home cue is left to personal interpretation.
To a sentimental dreamy person like me (not in the literary sense), it tells us that many things in life cannot be explained with simple terms. At the end of the day, our early childhood memories are the one we treasure most and our family moulds us!
Memorable quotes...
On some of God's mysterious way of doing things,
Doesn't He send files to the wound He should heal?

1 comment:

  1. At the end of the day, our early childhood memories are the one we treasure most and our family moulds us! Couldn't agree more.

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