To the Wonder (2013)

Film: To the Wonder (2013)
Stars: Ben Affleck, Olga Kurylenko, Rachel McAdams, Javier Bardem
Director: Terrence Malick
Oscar History: No nominations
(Not-so) Snap Judgment Ranking: 5/5 stars

Everyone has an opinion on Terrence Malick, and when they are negative, they are not polite.  People can't stand Michael Bay films or the movies of Tyler Perry, but they pass them off with a scoff or a chuckle and then move on with their lives.  Malick, on the other hand, people get nasty about-I have gotten into verbal disputes with people over the years who are otherwise sane and reasonable, but will not stop bashing Malick films.  I know someone who will literally interrupt me while I'm discussing The Tree of Life, every time I'm discussing it, to say that it's the worst film that she's ever seen.

When I am feeling at my snootiest and most stuck-up (forgetting that I eat Hamburger Helper on a regular basis and own the entire Twilight film series), I brush this aside as being merely them not understanding Malick.  Malick's films are not for the faint of heart, or for people who cannot get out of the mindset that a film has to be completely anchored by traditional plot or narrative.  I know this sounds silly coming from me, someone who pretty persistently is harping about the importance of plot, but with me it's about consistency and realism within the plot, not necessarily that the plot is thick.

But after many a fight, I've partially given up on trying to convince people to love Malick.  Either you love him or you don't, and in the same way I always tell people before they tell me their favorite movies that "I'm about to judge you a little bit," I feel a little bad bringing up Malick, because my opinion of people's cinematic leanings will forever be altered by how someone feels about him.  For, you see, Malick is one of my favorite directors.  I adore his movies-my brother calls me a "fanboy," which is usually something that you can only attribute to my love of certain TV shows, but with Malick, it's probably fairly accurate.  He is one of the only filmmakers I will literally see every single film he makes, regardless of the critical response.

(Spoilers ahead) And, apparently, he's a director that I can spend three paragraphs hemming-and-hawing over before I get to the actual review.  Since this is a movie, I'll briefly surmise the plot of the film, but as I mentioned above, the traditional plot is never exactly the point when it comes to Malick.  The film shows the relationship between Neil (Affleck) and Marina (Kurylenko), both of whom are seen at the beginning of the film falling in love in France, before they return to Neil's home in Oklahoma, where they slowly drift apart.  After Marina leaves Neil, he falls for an old flame, Jane (McAdams), but cannot seem to shake Marina, and slowly watches this relationship dissolve away, eventually marrying Marina.  They are briefly happy, but the combination of Marina's high-temper and drama for life (she has essentially abandoned her child to be with Neil) lead their marriage to once again splinter, and toward the end of the film Marina leaves once more.  The film ends with shots of the two actors, walking in a beautiful house (that is not theirs during their marriage), possibly reunited again with children this time, and you are left to wonder if they have split, or if this is them with different partners, or whether this is them returning, again and again to each other, trying to get right what can't appear to be corrected.

The film is more abstract than its clear predecessor The Tree of Life, which some may find hard to believe.  The movie has incredibly sparse dialogue, with few scenes that last longer than a minute with continuous dialogue.  The only scene I recall that truly does this for a while is a scene with Marina and an old friend, who walks with her in town and is even more of a free spirit than she.  The film, instead, conveys its message through a series of imagery, and largely lets the audience feel what the movie is directing them toward.  Malick's goal with this imagery is to speak to our ideas of amour.

If The Tree of Life was trying to show the meaning of life, To the Wonder attempts to answer the subset question of the meaning of love, and why we are the way we are with those we love.  The film's pacing, in my opinion, matches that of love-the first thirty minutes, when Neil and Marina are blissfully happy, is marked by a persistent, quick-paced attitude where they gloss over important things like what their true future together is in favor of feelings, affection and beautiful imagery.  As the film goes on, however, things start to slow in pace, and we see the characters start to break apart, finding other interests and eventually splintering their relationship multiple times.  The editing probably could have used a teensy bit more dialogue to flesh out these scenes, but you definitely feel the message.

I personally responded to a lot of the film, including of course the imagery.  If you don't watch a Terrence Malick movie and say "wow" at least ten times, you've either gone blind or are too cynical for your own good.  The movie is ripe with gorgeous beach shots around Mont St. Michel, as well as my favorite image-the up-close, intensely real scenes with the bison (you really felt as if you could reach out and touch them-Malick may be the only director I'd like to see tackle 3-D filmmaking).  Of course, it's easy to make nature or classic French landmarks look exquisite-it's quite another thing to make a Sonic Drive-In station look equally as breathless, as clearly Malick is a fan of Cheddar Peppers considering how frequently this fast-food chain shows up in his movie.

The film's overall message, I think, comes through as we progress.  Whether or not you try to attach yourself linearly to the characters or the film or you project your own failed love affairs onto the characters, the film closes in on the pain of love, and also the reasons why we put up with it.  The way the movie flows, you only rarely see moments outside of this romance (there are a couple of shots of Affleck's character at his job, but they show how empty these moments are compared to even the most destitute of scenes with his two paramours).  Even though it's only focused on love and the romances, you get a sense of this being a very full life-there are no questions of "where is this (missing) part of your life," which is likely Malick continuing to address "what is the meaning of life," as, as I mentioned before, the meaning of love is really a subset question of the meaning of life, at least in Malick's eyes.

So I will conclude (as I've been literally writing this review for days and eventually I need to finish it), that yes, I adored the film.  It isn't of the giant scope that The Tree of Life is, but it's a brilliant addition to Malick's canon.  With him now making multiple films over the next decade (he's got three on deck), I'm a little nervous about more being less, but with To the Wonder, my fears are (temporarily) alleviated.