My Writings

Mallick makes a number of mistakes, the chief one being a decision to include a 20 minute sequence showing planets forming, when this should be interlaced throughout the movie. There is a silly scene with a dinosaur, which is supposed to represent the birth of empathy, and also he includes a number of scenes with Sean Penn, which add nothing to the film and should have been discarded. It is certainly ambitious film-making. Mallick attempts to use the movie itself as a metaphor for how we learn as children. The movie begins without much form, but becomes more sophisticated the longer it goes. Eventually onto the screen comes Brad Pitt (decent as always) playing husband to Jessica Chastain, who represents grace, and we watch from their children's viewpoint, to the flawed lessons taught to them by their father, amidst life's joys and disappointments.

Penn's character is one of the children who has grown up and seems to be in a constant state of despair. What we are expected to learn from this is anyone's guess, because Mallick has not just blurred the boundary between art and cinema, he has made the mistake of crossing over. This is in contrast to directors such as Jean-Luc Goddard who begins with a cinematic foundation, and uses art to convey a message.

Amidst all the sublime imagery is a jaw-dropping scene near the end, where the camera drops down from a clear blue sky to reveal a huge field of sunflowers. What this is mean to convey is uncertain, but it looks fantastic.