A Visual Prayer

[southernweirdo]

Let me start off by saying I'm not a huge Terrance Malick fan. Yet, I do understand why so many film buffs love the guy. His cinematography consistently impresses. He captures subtle and natural performances from his actors. He is a skilled technical director. I'm no expert on film, but I know a sure hand when I see it, and he always has that going

Comments

[asakiyume]

You had me nodding and enthusiastic until you got to the part about the mother being supernaturally good, as the representation of Grace. But maybe--it sounds like--it works out all right in that movie.

I've heard other good things about it. I can't tell at all if I, personally, would like it, though I do love sensitive and positive portrayals of faith, ones that aren't silly or simple. But regardless of how **I'd** react, I'm glad it was such a great movie for **you**.

(A movie I really liked, about faith--and amazingly touching movie, at least for me, is a Danish film called Ordet, by Carl Dreyer. If you ever get a chance to see that, I recommend it. It's a little slow, but beautiful.)

[southernweirdo]

I'll have to look for Ordet. Sounds good.

When it comes to the mother character, I'm torn. Perhaps it was my interpretation that caused the problem? Perhaps she was meant to look perfect because that is how the son remembered her in comparison to his sometimes overbearingly perfectionist father. Perhaps the whole film was a visual depiction of a memory as well as a prayer.

If you see it, consider the more surreal moments that pop out of seemingly nowhere -- there's a moment where the boy watches his mother twirl freely through the air near a tree. Maybe she really was an angel to him?

It's really one of those movies that can be interpreted so many ways. I don't always like too much ambiguity, especially if it seems careless, but I think Tree of Life managed to use the ambiguities as a positive.