The Tree of Life - User Reviews
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2.82 / 5
Based on 268 votes and 74 reviews
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March 16, 2024
Love it - in its essence, it’s a coming-of-age story put into relation of the history of the earth and our solar system. If that doesn’t blow your mind, then what? Great performances by everybody, you just have to let go and inhale what’s happening!
February 17, 2024
Seriously, this is a great movie, even though hard to get. Terrence Malick‘s masterpiece. In its core, we follow a family in the 1950‘s, but he doesn’t shy away of a billion years forth and back to span the history of earth and the universe. It reflects the tinyness of our being in the overall universe, with various scenes being reminiscent of “2001.” Within this overall scope, it contrasts the hope of achieving something significant with the disappointment of reality, then moving into the realm of spirituality to grasp whatever happens to our lives. Impressive performances of Jack, R. L. and Steve as the kids, and Brad Pitt as the father, Sean Penn somewhat dull as the adult Jack. You’ll have to be in the right melancholic mood to watch it, but you’ll enjoy this movie.
April 15, 2014
What a bunch of nonsense.
March 16, 2012
spiritual, my way or god's way theme extremely thought-provoking
March 03, 2012
a masterpiece. malick is up there with the greats like dreyer and tarkovsky. as for the reviewers who trashed it because it didn't make sense or there wasn't enough nudity (!), what can you say - that's what years of mindless tv junk does to your head.
November 28, 2011
Quite possibly the most self indulgent train-wreck of a film I've ever seen. First film I walked out on since 'Armageddon' (but for entirely different reasons). Watching this was akin to being battered about the face by the flaccid, shriveled member of the director (Malik). I invested two hours into this time sink before dashing for the exit. The religious mumbo-jumbo didn't do a thing for me either. Pseudo-intellectual garbage.
November 18, 2011
Unquestionably the worst movie in the last few years. Photography was great, but you get the same shots (only even better) when watching national geographic or pics from the Hubble space telescope, and in those situations the shots actually make sense with the context of the film. Shame on you Pitt and Penn for signing on to this one. For anyone else it would have been career suicide.
November 04, 2011
Having just rented the DVD I have to say that the photography was great. The only thing is I did'nt want to view a movie, but get told a story. The director made art in the shooting of the picture, but I think he miss it in the story. Could have been much better with not trying to WOW, but allow us more time to see the acting and not tell the story for our selves.
October 26, 2011
Poor acting. Pathetic plot.
October 20, 2011
Fantastic! The sequence beginning near the twenty minute point of the movie is stunning. The immensity of time drawn by the visual effects of our galaxy and creation of the earth advancing toward the relative moment of our entire existence emphasizes the fleeting good fortune we exist at all and how minor a roll our sorrows and questions play. Blended with Zbigniew Preisner’s “Lacrimosa” at the beginning of the sequence, it was a fantastic presentation. I’ve watched the film three times now.
October 19, 2011
A little confusing at times but accurately depicts the life of a family in the 1950's. Brought a lot of childhood memories back.
October 14, 2011
terrible
October 13, 2011
Great movie. NOt for the average Joe. Not for raunchy comedy ot horror lovers. This is a movie for all the things one experience in adolescense, childhood, relationships with parents, siblings;love, adoration, not being understood and EVERYTHING what life is about. Brad Pitt gives an Oscar worthy performance. You have never seen him emerged in a role so much that you forget it is him. Jessica Chastain - true discovery- very talented young promising actress; we will see great things from her. And the kids...a mature and outstanding performance. A great master piece of a genius director which could be seen once every 10-20 years. The beautiful scenes are a piece of its own and beautiful to wat
September 05, 2011
After reading Movie Mill newspaper recommendation I took a friend. The photgraphy is amazing but too long...it was starting to feel like a National Geographic production. Don't care for back and forth in time sequences at all. The children were amazing actors. Dialoque difficult to hear at times. The ending was confusing and overdone leaving the viewer to figure out what really happened.It was so cold in the theatre that it was extremely uncomfortable. Both my firend and I had sore tailbones from the new seats. ANd the large head of the person inf ront of me sure didn't help!!!Have found this theatre very cold due to AC before. BRRRRRRRR!! Some walked out of the theatre at the beginning....
August 22, 2011
the people that left the movie, missed out. this makes you think, not just be entertained.well done.
August 13, 2011
it left me thinking well after i left the theater.
August 10, 2011
dreadful movie, never seen so many people leave. Thank goodness I went on Toonie Tues. Save your time and money.
August 05, 2011
Is the wort movie I have EVER watch! DO NOT!
August 04, 2011
Beautiful
August 03, 2011
Terrence Mallick's gorgeous,poetic,epic saga of family life in the 50's also provides meditations on the origins of life,the universe and everything.
August 03, 2011
It was difficult to watch, with all the people standing up and walking out! I thought they were lining up for free popcorn. Wish the trailer had some of the imager so we could have been more prepared. Couldn`t follow most of the dialogue anyway but when my wife started snoring, it was impossible.
August 03, 2011
This movie is truly complex. Excellent performances from the main characters however the back and forth plot seem to be a challenge at the best of times. Lovely scenery but just not a movie I would consider owning. I never saw a theatre empty so fast. LOVE ALWAYS JOANNIE :):):)
August 02, 2011
I can tell I am going to love this movie from the reviews. When people trash a movie because there is no nudity and too much about faith and finding the meaning of life, I want to see it. I am going to believe the reviewers who said it was brilliant but requires an intelligent and insightful audience. I hated Bad Teacher so I think I will like this.
August 02, 2011
an intelligent movie for intelligent movie goers!
August 01, 2011
And people thought Gigli in 2003 was bad. I work in a movie theatre and adults and majority of seniors didnt like this movie and wanted to switch their movie to something else and the movie of choice was Midnight in Paris. After they saw that they found it much better than Tree of Life.
July 31, 2011
I can`t believe there wasn`t any nudity in this
July 30, 2011
Possibly the best film of the year so far. People that don't like this are the ones who can't see someone elses vision for what it is, and who have not very many brain cells moving in their head. To experience this film is something quite moving and unforgettable.
July 30, 2011
Worst movie we have seen in years. Shocked that Brad Pitt and Sean Penn would be a part of such a poor production! It was so bad we left! Impossible to hear the few words that were spoken and could not follow or find the plot line. Too many gaps in the movie.
July 28, 2011
A powerful movie that touches on matters that are important to everyone - birth, death, family, love, and reflects the incredible complexity of our inner and outer universe. Outstanding cinematography.
July 28, 2011
Fantastic movie with beautiful interludes and pensive moments...and truly special for those who love God and think of Him often.
July 28, 2011
Visual.
July 27, 2011
One of the worst movies ever. Stunning visuals, but if you get rid of them and use the "acting" scenes, this movie could be 10 mintes long
July 26, 2011
I had such high expectations for this movie. I'm so sorry to report that I cannot recommend this to anyone. Better to rent Plant Earth and figure out the meaning of your life. It is so rare that I don't rave. I'm going to have to take a major pass on this one and now my husband will not let me choose a movie for the next 3 months!
July 25, 2011
This movie is unlike any I've seen before.I will see it again.
July 22, 2011
thanks everyone for saving me the cost of admission to what would surely be a time waster for me.........zero out of zero it is...........
July 22, 2011
Good acting but WEIRD. Didn't really get the purpose of the movie.
July 21, 2011
the best sleep i've had in years
July 21, 2011
Theme overrides the plot. Self indulgent photo, poetic, music montage. I was surprised by how much I hated it, since I have never seen a film at the Princess I didn't like.
July 20, 2011
This is possibly the most beautful film that I have ever had the pleasure of viewing.
July 19, 2011
What on earth was that? This is for me the worst movie I have ever seen. I nodded off several times during this long drawn out yawner. Unbelievably boring and unbelievable, period. Brad Pitt's character came across as an unrealistic collage of several incompatible father figure stereotypes. Whatever existential questions his son Jack was supposedly wondering about never became clear. Beautiful cinematography (hence the 1 star rating), but that alone is far from enough to make this worthy of a recommendation. Where can I get my money back? (The 2+ hrs I spent in the theatre are gone forever...)
July 16, 2011
Very visual.
July 15, 2011
Brilliant. But like most masterpieces it requires you to do your part. A passing familiarity with parts of the Bible would help :) But it's not overtly religious; it's overtly metaphorical, though. There is a narrative; and I didn't find it hard to understand. Is it a little pretentious? Yes. Are some of those metaphors "on the nose"? Yes. Do they still work? Yes. One of the very best I've seen in many, many years.
July 14, 2011
Terrible movie.
July 13, 2011
This movie would have made a great short film. But turned out being no more than a contrived piece of visual masturbation. A moment of speach followed by 15 minutes of random images (of the creation of the universe)and 5 minutes of black screen is not a movie, it a modern art project. The images are beautiful, unbelievablly beautiful. But thats about it The director may have being trying to contrast the the savagness of the natural world and the lovingness of god, but if so (spolier) why didn't the one dinosaur kill the other one? If you want to validate your religion and look at a 20 minute film spackled into a 2.5 hour spot with brilliantly shot pictures and snippests of vide
July 12, 2011
it was very slow and never picked up the pace..although Brad looked amazing!
July 12, 2011
If I could have given it 0 stars I would have. What could have been a great movie about memories of a childhood turned into a pretentious slide show half way through the movie. Ending was ridiculous and weak.
July 11, 2011
Didn't make any sense Lots of visuals edited in that made no sense What's with the dinosaurs? Brad Pitt had about a page of dialogue and Sean Penn had no dialogue doesn't show up until 2 hours into the movie and gets 2nd billing!
July 10, 2011
This movie didn't know what it was supposed to be. When a 20 minute IMAX segment breaks out in the middle of the movie it seems out of place. visually stunning,but very confusing. Too long.ZZZZZ! It didn't make the top 10 list.There must be a reason why!
July 09, 2011
Wonderful parable of life.
July 06, 2011
Brilliant cinematography.