★★★★☆ Following up 2011's Palme d'Or-winning The Tree of Life was always going to be a tough gig for American auteur Terrence Malick, but few commentators could have predicted the huge division of opinion that new film To the Wonder would provoke. Released this week on DVD and Blu-ray, To the Wonder sees Malick collaborating once again with Mexican cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (combining to predictably resplendent effect), and whilst criticism has been raised over the film's lack of narrative drive and its high-faluting voiceovers, this is still very much a partner piece to The Tree of Life's quest for everyday divinity.
Academy Awarder Ben Affleck (unlikely to work with Malick again following a recent spat) stars as American overseas Neil, who falls in love with Ukrainian single mother Marina (Olga Kurylenko) during a stay in Paris. Marina and her young daughter - from a previous marriage - agree to travel...
Academy Awarder Ben Affleck (unlikely to work with Malick again following a recent spat) stars as American overseas Neil, who falls in love with Ukrainian single mother Marina (Olga Kurylenko) during a stay in Paris. Marina and her young daughter - from a previous marriage - agree to travel...
- 6/17/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Terrence Malick's To the Wonder is The Tree of Life 2 though on a much smaller scale. It's also what appears to be a signal Malick is no longer interested in traditional narratives. While the story is told in a linear fashion, I'd be shocked if more than 10-percent of it contained dialogue that wasn't voice over and the number of shots focused on water and the distant sun on the horizon have to fill almost half the picture. I say none of this as an all-encompassing complaint, merely an indicator of what you're in for. Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki once again captures the sun-kissed world the same as he did in Tree of Life and, as expected, it's beautiful, but is it also pointless? To the Wonder is filled with so many random shots of water, walking in wheat fields, twirling in the backyard and bedroom wrestling it's more of...
- 4/12/2013
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
How does Malick's latest effort fit into the filmmaker's oeuvre? Featuring Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain, and Sean Penn, Malick's existential drama The Tree of Life, released two years ago, is the obvious seed stock for To the Wonder. (Pictured above: Olga Kurylenko, Ben Affleck's romantic interest) Those two efforts are twins both thematically and stylistically -- though, admittedly, they are also closely related to his entire oeuvre. From his 1970s' efforts Badlands and Days of Heaven, Malick’s interests have always been expounded upon. Among those is what one could call a “wonder” at all things that have not been created by Man, and therefore likely created by God, besides philosophical ponderings about things that were created by Man, such as disharmony with nature and both external and inner conflicts. The New World, for example, has little if any historical relevance; on the other hand, this 2005 effort features much...
- 4/12/2013
- by Tim Cogshell
- Alt Film Guide
Malick's Latest a Navel-Gazing Poem Featuring Sketchy Female Characters Filmmaker Terrence Malick’s latest effort, the existential drama To the Wonder, is built from broken hearts, shattered relationships, and unanswered prayers. Those should have been "long since forgotten" rather than pondered on film, one more time, in this lyrical but redundant and ultimately navel-gazing poem. As a story, the film is so sad it’s almost unbearable. As cinema, it’s just plain unbearable. Pictured above: Old flame Rachel McAdams and Ben Affleck (who replaced Christian Bale). In his latest drama, Malick’s only sixth directorial work since Badlands in 1973 (though his second in the last two years, following The Tree of Life), we find the filmmaker’s perennial themes. Those can basically be reduced to a handful of ideas about Man’s struggle with his actual nature as opposed to one more suitable to a civilized world where some...
- 4/12/2013
- by Tim Cogshell
- Alt Film Guide
If you're a fan of Terrence Malick, you'll likely be a fan of To the Wonder.
The esteemed filmmaker's latest feature is in every way a Malick film, bearing his unmistakable stamp with its dreamy vibe, spiritual explorations and heavenly visual style. To the Wonder is gorgeous, complex, tragic, sometimes confounding and, like all of Malick's work, definitely not for everyone. I mean this as a compliment.
In To the Wonder's striking opening montage, we're drawn into the white-hot romance between Neil (Ben Affleck), an American traveling in Europe, and Marina (Olga Kurylenko), a Ukrainian divorcee raising her 10-year-old daughter, Tatiana (Tatiana Chiline) in Paris. After a whirlwind affair, Neil invites Marina and Tatiana to live with him in a place rather unlike Europe -- his native Oklahoma.
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The esteemed filmmaker's latest feature is in every way a Malick film, bearing his unmistakable stamp with its dreamy vibe, spiritual explorations and heavenly visual style. To the Wonder is gorgeous, complex, tragic, sometimes confounding and, like all of Malick's work, definitely not for everyone. I mean this as a compliment.
In To the Wonder's striking opening montage, we're drawn into the white-hot romance between Neil (Ben Affleck), an American traveling in Europe, and Marina (Olga Kurylenko), a Ukrainian divorcee raising her 10-year-old daughter, Tatiana (Tatiana Chiline) in Paris. After a whirlwind affair, Neil invites Marina and Tatiana to live with him in a place rather unlike Europe -- his native Oklahoma.
read more...
- 4/11/2013
- by Don Clinchy
- Slackerwood
"Wonder" has always been the word with Terrence Malick.
He might be the most sought-after, high-budget art-house filmmaker on the planet, a director whose talent for cinematic poetry and freeform improvisation gives him virtually the pick of Hollywood's A-list litter. But for all his voice-over philosophizing, his movies are completely guileless. He makes simple films beautifully, with a childlike sense of wonder. Even if his films fail to leave you elated, you can't help but feel cleansed by their innocent purity.
A new Malick masterwork is always an event, but as the releases have grown more commonplace, so, too has the feeling that his movie world – so separate from others – has developed its own systematic clichés. There may be, it turns out, only so much inner-monologue questioning about love and nature from a barefoot, long-haired lass in the sun-lit grass that we can take.
Such has been the reception to Malick's latest,...
He might be the most sought-after, high-budget art-house filmmaker on the planet, a director whose talent for cinematic poetry and freeform improvisation gives him virtually the pick of Hollywood's A-list litter. But for all his voice-over philosophizing, his movies are completely guileless. He makes simple films beautifully, with a childlike sense of wonder. Even if his films fail to leave you elated, you can't help but feel cleansed by their innocent purity.
A new Malick masterwork is always an event, but as the releases have grown more commonplace, so, too has the feeling that his movie world – so separate from others – has developed its own systematic clichés. There may be, it turns out, only so much inner-monologue questioning about love and nature from a barefoot, long-haired lass in the sun-lit grass that we can take.
Such has been the reception to Malick's latest,...
- 4/9/2013
- by AP
- Huffington Post
Terrence Malick certainly likes a challenge. In the Oscar nominated The Tree of Life he attempted to discover the meaning of life, whereas now he has scaled down somewhat to simply understand love and its nuances.
As a result, To The Wonder works better in that it’s not quite as grand a subject matter, therefore giving him a greater chance to conquer it, if you will. However where his latest feature suffers, is that it hasn’t got that grandiose, epic quality that was so appealing about his preceding production.
We follow the turbulent relationship between Marina (Olga Kurylenko) and Neil (Ben Affleck), and despite a memorable, romantic voyage to Mont Saint-Michel in France, the pair – along with Marina’s daughter Tatiana (Tatiana Chiline) – return to Neil’s home in Oklahoma, and it is back in America where problems arise and their seemingly formidable bond starts to break down.
As a result, To The Wonder works better in that it’s not quite as grand a subject matter, therefore giving him a greater chance to conquer it, if you will. However where his latest feature suffers, is that it hasn’t got that grandiose, epic quality that was so appealing about his preceding production.
We follow the turbulent relationship between Marina (Olga Kurylenko) and Neil (Ben Affleck), and despite a memorable, romantic voyage to Mont Saint-Michel in France, the pair – along with Marina’s daughter Tatiana (Tatiana Chiline) – return to Neil’s home in Oklahoma, and it is back in America where problems arise and their seemingly formidable bond starts to break down.
- 2/20/2013
- by Stefan Pape
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
To this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, Terrence Malick has brought us To The Wonder, his mysterious project which has been kept tightly under wraps for a while now.
The story follows Marina (Olga Kurylenko) and Neil (Ben Affleck), who are enjoying a love affair in Europe. After vising Mont Saint-Michel in France (the so-called “Wonder” mentioned in the film’s title), he asks her to come back with him to the United States with the eventual hope of getting married. They bring Marina’s 10-year-old daughter Tatiana (Tatiana Chiline) with them, and it becomes very obvious that things are not going to be as easy as they should be.
Last year, I watched my first Terrence Malick film – The Tree of Life. While it was an aggravating experience to say the least, I maintain to this day how spellbinding and wondrous the film is. Knowing his track record...
The story follows Marina (Olga Kurylenko) and Neil (Ben Affleck), who are enjoying a love affair in Europe. After vising Mont Saint-Michel in France (the so-called “Wonder” mentioned in the film’s title), he asks her to come back with him to the United States with the eventual hope of getting married. They bring Marina’s 10-year-old daughter Tatiana (Tatiana Chiline) with them, and it becomes very obvious that things are not going to be as easy as they should be.
Last year, I watched my first Terrence Malick film – The Tree of Life. While it was an aggravating experience to say the least, I maintain to this day how spellbinding and wondrous the film is. Knowing his track record...
- 9/16/2012
- by David Baldwin
- We Got This Covered
Terrence Malick's To the Wonder is The Tree of Life 2 though on a much smaller scale. It's also what appears to be a signal Malick is no longer interested in traditional narratives. While the story is told in a linear fashion, I'd be shocked if more than 10-percent of it contained dialogue that wasn't voice over and the number of shots focused on water and the distant sun on the horizon have to fill almost half the picture. I say none of this as an all-encompassing complaint, merely an indicator of what you're in for. Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki once again captures the sun-kissed world the same as he did in Tree of Life and, as expected, it's beautiful, but is it also pointless? To the Wonder is filled with so many random shots of water, walking in wheat fields, twirling in the backyard and bedroom wrestling it's more of...
- 9/12/2012
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
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