To the Wonder
Directed by Terrence
Malick
Starring: Ben Affleck, Olga Kurylenko, Rachel McAdams, Javier Bardem
Grade: B
Those put off by the broader themes in Malick’s vision in “The Tree of Life”
can be assured that “To the Wonder” reverts to a form of romantic personalisation
that won him loyal supporters back in “Days of Heaven.” A rural-American
setting once again provides the landscape for a story which reinforces themes
of dislocation and estrangement, but details them as a destructive factor in a
relationship, rather than a uniting, primitive bond, as in his 1978 romance.
The courtship of
Affleck’s Neil and Kurylenko’s Marina exercises Malick’s enterprising visual
flair, his inherent tenderness as a filmmaker giving their romance a swooning,
crystallising glow. The couple’s subsequent deterioration echoes common
relationship issues like cultural mismatch, commitment phobia, and even
boredom, problems which could easily grow repetitive and tire a film so
attached to narrative pitfalls, like last year’s “Keep the Lights On.” Malick’s
style ensures that, largely, this isn’t the case, never fully immersed in the
finer details of the couple – we get flashes of dialogue regarding VISA trouble
and a sexual issue, but never more than that – and therefore able to curb the
potentially overwrought nature of their relationship in favour of his trademark
visual storytelling.
The disadvantage
of this technique is that “To the Wonder” becomes more reliant upon individual
performances than any of Malick’s previous films – save for maybe “Badlands” –
to provide bursts of characterisation, and the success of the cast members vary
significantly. Kurylenko gives an astonishingly layered performance, imbued
with the precocious, playful qualities which make her endearing in the first
place, but reveal themselves to be tiresome and misguidedly idealistic that it’s
no wonder Neil loses interest in Marina. Affleck – who it’s good to see back in
front of the camera again – fares less well, not necessarily through a
particular fault of his own, but rather that Malick seems less interested in
his character’s plight than Kurylenko’s, whose effervescent complexion fits
more with his entrancing, romanticised view of a doomed love affair. In any
case, he doesn’t afford Affleck as much freedom as Pitt in “The Tree of Life”
or Caviezel in “The Thin Red Line,” tortured male characters who were far
easier to identify with.
While some attest that “The Tree of Life” is a religious film, its reverence of
the natural mystique reads more to me as a spiritual piece uncommitted to God,
or Jesus. The attempts to introduce Catholicism into “To the Wonder” sit less
well – not because they represent a more specified belief system, but because
they’re closely associated with guilt, and there isn’t a strong enough sense of
duty from either of the couple to warrant that aside. At under two hours “To
the Wonder” feels drawn out, too, although positively so: the conviction of its
director towards creating an emotional pull makes the film visually extraneous
without letting its characters overstay their welcome, and may perhaps best
demonstrate the appeal of Malick’s unique brand of cinema.
