The Tree of Life

The Tree of Life

Dir. Terrence Malick

Plan B Entertainment

The Tree of Life’s story loosely focuses on a man, Jack O’Brien, who reflects on his childhood memories, loss of innocence and his struggle to reconcile with his father while growing up in the 1950s. However, there are larger themes that intermittently interrupt the story as the film presents grand scenes of nature, history, evolution and ultimately the world’s demise. The Tree of Life shifts from beautiful scenes exhibiting the beginning of life with a single cell to landscapes of nature and the elements that represent an ever-present binary between harmony and destruction. This film has no clear focus and yet its message points to the continued progression of life in the wake of inevitable event—such as death. As the story questions the meaning of life through the eyes of O’Brien and the greater forces at work, the answer remains just as mysterious as it always has, but with hopes of added enlightenment about our universe.