Even after attending countless midnight shows over the years, I have never been part of a more eager audience than I was this past weekend. Every seat in the theater was filled with the exception of a handful of seats in the very front row. For all intents and purposes that means it was a sold-out show as theaters are forced to leave a few tickets unsold to accommodate for those six or so handicapped chairs.
This was on a Friday afternoon, mind you. At 1:00 pm, when most “normal” people are still at work. Granted, it was the first Chicago screening of The Tree of Life, so there were bound to be plenty of nerds like myself who would show up regardless.
The previews started a few minutes later than scheduled, so the crowd was already becoming restless. But I have never heard such a collective groan with the passing of each green screen that signaled the start of yet another trailer. That groan grew louder with each respective trailer.
Then, finally, Fox Searchlight’s trailer for The Descendents hit the screen. Well, sort of. The entire trailer played off the top of the screen, throwing the crowd into a near-frenzy. A number of people dashed to the doors to get someone to fix the issue. The rest simply turned around in their seats and yelled at the projectionist, who was apparently MIA.
Sure enough, the feature began and the quote from the Book of Job that opens the film was only partially legible. The projector was fixed shortly thereafter. From this point forward, I cannot recall a more attentive and quiet audience. I heard absolutely no crunching of popcorn, talking or rustling in the seats. Everyone remained fixated on the screen for the next 138 minutes.
It was a much different story when I saw the film again a few days later. There were plenty of giggles (mainly at the dinosaur scene and the admittedly adorable infancy montage), a seemingly never-ending flow of bathroom breaks and even a few walkouts. The Friday audience clearly had a better idea of what they were getting themselves into.
If you’ve been following my work on this site at all you know quite well that I’m an unabashed Terrence Malick fan. I’ve been looking forward to The Tree of Life since long before I wrote my anticipatory article last summer. So the big question is, with this piece being a follow-up of sorts, Was it all I’d hoped it would be?
In short, yes. I actually considered going right back in for a third viewing but ultimately decided it would be too exhausting. I needed time to collect my thoughts and discuss them with my good friend who attended the movie with me. Without going into a full-blown review of the film, I will say this:
The Tree of Life isn’t a once-in-a-lifetime movie; it’s a once (period.) movie. I’ve never seen a film like it, and for as long as people continue making movies, I’m quite positive we’ll never see anything like this again. There will always be another heist film, alien invasion or superhero movie. There can only be one Tree of Life. Whether you love the film or not, I don’t think you can deny that. If for no other reason than that, we should all feel fortunate and take advantage of the fact that we’ve had the opportunity to see this film on the big screen.
Even after two viewings, I still haven’t decided what to take away from the film. I have, however, had many interesting conversations regarding the film’s breathtaking final sequence. We’re talking major SPOILERS from here on out, so you probably want to stop here if you haven’t seen the film. So see it when you get the chance, formulate your own interpretation and return to this post. I’d love to hear your theory.
As a whole, the film is much more of a straight-forward linear narrative than I was expecting. But I’ve found the closing minutes to make a really fascinating conversation piece. The portion of the film I’m referring to is the final act, after the O’Brien family moves away from the boys’ childhood home. We cut to what appears to be present day and see Jack (Sean Penn’s character) board an elevator and quickly ascend to the top of the very modern-looking glass building where he works.
My initial reaction was that Jack commits suicide here. Earlier in the film, we hear him apologizing to his father for something he said many years ago. To me this signified him sewing up all his debts before he “leaves.” Then, in the final sequence, we hear young Jack whisper, “Follow me.” Penn then follows his younger self off a cliff of sorts in the desert. What follows could be Jack’s “life flashing before your eyes” as he prepares for his death. This explains why he sees his brothers and parents as they were when he was young because that was the happiest and most memorable time of his life.
The final shot of Penn smiling on the street, the only time he smiles in the entire film, throws off this theory. Given the film’s amount of Christian themes, you can also throw in the fact that suicide is considered a sin that would send Jack straight to hell. That’s a place (as far as I could tell) we never get a glimpse of.
This leads me to what I’ve considered the “contemplated suicide” angle. When we see the elevator rising in the final act, Jack is on his way to the top of the building where I presume he plans to leap to his death. But when he reaches the top he has this out-of-body experience that allows him to come to terms with his brother’s death and brings closure to the conflict with his father. This is why we see him smiling at the end of the film after we watch the elevator return to ground level. A massive weight has been lifted and Jack finally feels free from his demons. This theory has come to make the most sense to me over the past few days.
I’ve had a lot of fun discussing the film with Brad, who took something entirely different away from these final scenes. While I’ve been working under the impression that all of Sean Penn’s scenes take place on the same day, Brad sees the film as more of a choppy narrative that spans the breadth of time. His theory is that the “out-of-body experience” I referred to earlier, where we see Jack on the beach, is Jack in Heaven. How and when he died he doesn’t quite know. He explained to me his reasoning for why Penn’s character is older and the rest of his family is younger is because he believes Jack must have left home around the age of 18 and since we are seeing Heaven as Jack sees Heaven we are seeing his family as Jack last remembers them.
I understand I haven’t even touched on the grace vs. nature dilemma that is largely the heart of the film (that might be a different discussion for a different day), but I have found this debate to yield far more compelling responses. So please, leave your interpretation of the film’s ending in the comments.
Which (if any) of these explanations make sense to you? And don’t be afraid to point out any holes in our theories as there are sure to be plenty.
