The Tree of Life

Below you'll find the amazing Willamette Week review of The Tree of Life (just click on the review to make it bigger and read), followed by my response to the writer. Do note there are a couple spoilers.


Dear Mr. Mesh:

Thank you for writing such a thoughtful and beautiful review of Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life. I've been wanting to watch this film ever since I first saw the trailer a few months ago; the images in the trailer have haunted me, and I've found myself returning time and again to my curiosity surrounding this story. Last December my mother, brother, and I drove to Aurora outside of Portland to go antiquing and we stopped off at a '50s-style diner for lunch. We sat in a booth across from the soda fountain-esque counter, where an elderly gentleman and a young man -- maybe in his late teens or early twenties -- were discussing quantum physics. The young man brought up The Tree of Life and how he thought the film would end up commenting on God, parallel universes, the meaning of time. Admittedly, I found myself eavesdropping, but lovingly so.

Your review was a rare treat: not only was it a movie review but a mini-essay, a piece of artistic commentary. You took a chance with your words and really dove into the Bigger Questions without fear. You wrote, "[This film] doesn't know life's answers but it knows how the questions feel" -- how raw and poetic of you. And while I might have preferred you didn't reveal details re: a grown-up Jack in the final sequence or the final shot of the bird "flitting through towers and bridges" -- some of us haven't seen the film yet -- I appreciate and understand your attempt at carving meaning and painting a full cycle of exploration of your post-viewing impressions.

I plan on seeing The Tree of Life this Sunday and am looking forward to letting my own impressions settle in. I'm left with the same type of anticipation I felt right before I saw American Beauty, one of my favorite films. Have you seen Tarsem's The Fall, John Duigan's Lawn Dogs, and Henry Bromell's Panic? I'd place these in your viewing queue if you haven't had the pleasure yet.

Thank you for the goose bumps -- I've always respected Willamette Week but I think this was my first experience where I wanted to cut out the review, tuck it in a journal, and preserve it so that I could pull it out from time to time and reflect. In fact, I'm going to do just that. Well done.

Warm Regards,

Nathan Buck