To the Wonder

Terrence Malick’s To the Wonder is not as maddeningly pretentious or over long as his previous picture Tree of Life; but this new film is an even more frustrating attempt to poetically explore strong emotions through visual imagery.  At best, watching To the Wonder is like visiting some neighbors that you don’t particularly like and being presented with four hours of their vacation videos--though since they know you’re not very interested they fast-forward through the entire presentation at double speed, making the experience even more unbearable.  At its worst, watching To the Wonder is like being strapped to a chair Clockwork Orange style, but instead of being forced to watch acts of violence, you are forced to watch hundreds of real estate walk-through videos.

Malick and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki shoot the entire movie as if they were first time videographers who have just discovered how neat things look when photographed with a wide-angle lens on a mini-Stedicam.  Malick has always been in love with his own imagery but this film pushes that self-indulgence to the breaking point. With every harsh jump-cut to the next “beauty shot”, the power of each image becomes weaker and weaker.  Eventually, the picture seems to cease being a feature film and starts to feel like a looping, showroom demo for the Arriflex camera employed for the production.  To the Wonder is so fragmented and ill-defined it is hard to take it seriously. Much of the whispered voice over is laughable--like something you would hear in a parody of Malick’s work. I think even his die-hard fans will have to agree with me on this one.