To The Wonder

You don't need to see all six of Terrence Malick's films to understand that he is out to challenge convention is his unique way of making films. His first film, Badlands, was released in 1973 and overshadowed every film at the 1973 New York Film Festival. Now that his sixth film, To The Wonder (only two years after Tree of Life) is on Netflix I had both the joy and disappointment of seeing it.

I do love Malick's work. I'll start off with that. His last film Tree of Life left me a bumbling and teary idiot that did not understand what he saw on the screen. The film deals with a lot of existential philosophy and the impermanence of life. The film is personal to Malick because he lost his older brother to suicide when he was 19, and the film revolves around that concept. Days of Heaven (1978) is also a film I hold near and dear to my heart. It is the most beautiful love story I have seen in my entire life, and when compared to To The Wonder, it doesn't shake from its position as number one love story.

To The Wonder follows Marina (played by Olga Kurylenko) and Neil (played by Ben Affleck) as they fall in love in Paris and move to Oklahoma. They have a falling out and Marina goes back to Paris with her daughter. Neil then gets together with an old flame named Jane (played by Rachel McAdams). Eventually they too have a falling out and Neil and Marina get married. They eventually divorce and Marina is consoled by Father Quintana (played by Javier Bardem).

Malick's latest film explores the concept of love. The film is so based in concept that there is little to no real cohesive narrative. That does not bother me at all; what does bother me about the film is the convoluted images. It uses the white curtains, constantly moving camera, and a lot of people walking around outside looking at stuff. The images, by themselves, are interesting. In the context of the whole film it seems unnecessary that we see so many of the same shots, shot differently, over and over again. There's even a scene in which Neil and Jane are walking through a corn field, which is just a rehashed image from Days of Heaven. So, technically, it is great. The images are interesting, but they don't vary.

The theme of the film is where Malick really does shine. The concept of love is vastly represented through the film in three parts. Divine love (God's love for humanity) is represented by Father Quintana in his everlasting pursuit to help others that are more fortunate, equally fortunate, or less fortunate than him. False love (lust) is represented by Neil's old flame Jane. They reconnect after Marina goes back to France and display their "love" much more physically than Marina and Neil ever did. Lastly, true love (marital love) is shown through the marriage of Marina and Neil after she returns to Oklahoma. It eventually deteriorates in a surprisingly quick way. The permanence of marital love is represented rather cynically with the immediate jump in time, which is extremely surprising with how ambient and uplifting Malick's films usually are (even if they do toy with death quite often).

The film didn't exactly fail for me, but I think I went in expecting the typical Malickian experience. I wanted to get from To The Wonder what I got from Tree of Life. It's a completely different monster though. The mood of the film changes rapidly and without warning. The theme of marital love is obviously too mature for me, I cannot get anything out of that. Tree of Life played with universal images of childhood and succeeded in making it readable to even novice film enthusiasts. Malick is playing with conveyance of the image in To The Wonder and it is rather interesting. It's his most experimental work to date.

I'll definitely be revisiting this film soon.

First time watch: 6.5/10