The Tree of Life: Movie Review
Has anyone seen the movie The Tree of Life, "starring" Brad Pitt and Sean Penn? (I put "starring" in quotation marks, because Sean Penn was in approximately five minutes of this movie.) I had never heard of it, but one of my friends, wished4this, saw this movie in theaters (yes, she actually paid money to see it), and claimed it to be the worst movie ever. Jay, one of our mutual friends, wanted to verify this claim for himself, so she bought him the DVD for his birthday, and last night, Jay hosted the Terrible Movie Viewing Party, in which a group of us (eight total) watched it while drinking copious amounts of alcohol, which is the only way one can bear to watch this movie.
OMG. wished4this claimed it was awful, but none of us were prepared for just how terrible it was. To understand just how fucking awful the movie is, it must be viewed. Words just can't describe the atrocity that is The Tree of Life. This movie is quite the piece of crap, and is the epitome of pretentious.
According to IMDB and Wikipedia, this movie actually has a plot, and the characters have names. However, there was no discernible plot, and if it weren't for the back of the DVD case, one might miss the fact that Sean Penn's character is named Jack (the name Jack was uttered once during the movie). Basically, the movie was a mishmash of random scenes and what appear to be clips taken from nature specials, with a couple of dinosaurs thrown in. "Dinosaurs?! What the fuck do dinosaurs have to do with this movie?" you may be asking yourself. I don't know, either, but that was the highlight of this film.
The film starts off with an artsy-fartsy shot of the mother running through the grass, with a voice over. I'm not positive of what was said, as like the rest of the dialogue in the movie, it was incomprehensible. Even with the volume turned up, it was very difficult to hear anything that was said throughout the movie, as everything was uttered in whispers and mumbles, with a Texan accent thrown in (the characters lived in Texas, apparently). But no matter; there was very little dialogue--probably only about 15 minutes throughout the entire 139 minute film--and even if you could hear what was said, it probably wouldn't have made much difference to the understanding of the movie.
The montage of scenes that follow include the mother receiving news of the death of one of her three sons, and a contemplative Sean Penn, as the adult Jack. Then there is approximately 15 minutes of of imagery of the universe and space and whatnot, with dramatic background music, followed by jellyfish and dinosaurs, and then two hours of stuff, including Jack as a child stealing his neighbour's nightgown and tossing it into the river and a very strained family dinner. The last scene consists of Sean Penn walking through a mysterious veil in the Department of Mysteries a wooden doorway on the beach, and being reunited with his dead brother and family.
OMG. wished4this claimed it was awful, but none of us were prepared for just how terrible it was. To understand just how fucking awful the movie is, it must be viewed. Words just can't describe the atrocity that is The Tree of Life. This movie is quite the piece of crap, and is the epitome of pretentious.
According to IMDB and Wikipedia, this movie actually has a plot, and the characters have names. However, there was no discernible plot, and if it weren't for the back of the DVD case, one might miss the fact that Sean Penn's character is named Jack (the name Jack was uttered once during the movie). Basically, the movie was a mishmash of random scenes and what appear to be clips taken from nature specials, with a couple of dinosaurs thrown in. "Dinosaurs?! What the fuck do dinosaurs have to do with this movie?" you may be asking yourself. I don't know, either, but that was the highlight of this film.
The film starts off with an artsy-fartsy shot of the mother running through the grass, with a voice over. I'm not positive of what was said, as like the rest of the dialogue in the movie, it was incomprehensible. Even with the volume turned up, it was very difficult to hear anything that was said throughout the movie, as everything was uttered in whispers and mumbles, with a Texan accent thrown in (the characters lived in Texas, apparently). But no matter; there was very little dialogue--probably only about 15 minutes throughout the entire 139 minute film--and even if you could hear what was said, it probably wouldn't have made much difference to the understanding of the movie.
The montage of scenes that follow include the mother receiving news of the death of one of her three sons, and a contemplative Sean Penn, as the adult Jack. Then there is approximately 15 minutes of of imagery of the universe and space and whatnot, with dramatic background music, followed by jellyfish and dinosaurs, and then two hours of stuff, including Jack as a child stealing his neighbour's nightgown and tossing it into the river and a very strained family dinner. The last scene consists of Sean Penn walking through a mysterious veil in the Department of Mysteries a wooden doorway on the beach, and being reunited with his dead brother and family.