TIFF 2012 REVIEW: TO THE WONDER
(USA,
2012)
Cast: Ben Affleck, Olga Kurylenko , Rachel McAdams, Javier
Bardhem, Tatiana Chahine
Written by: Terrence Malick
Directed by: Terrence Malick
One of American cinema's most divisive directors is also one
of its least-prolific: having directed
only six features in forty years, Terrence Malick dazzled with his1973
independent debut "Badlands", only to retreat from box-office and
critical success and follow up five years later with the bewildering "Days
Of Heaven", which spent two years in post-production as Malick
experimented with various cuts and voice-overs. When he came out with a new film twenty years later, it took
"Days" approach even farther, as this adaptation of a fairly-straightforward
novel by James Jones became a largely plotless "meditation" on war. It's an approach--and some of his dissenters
would argue is a formula--he's stuck with since...
Malick's newest narrative feature, "To The Wonder"
follows the lush, bewildering "Tree Of Life" (which stopped after act
one to reel back from 1950s Texas to the very creation of the universe) after
just two years, but it's still an event for adventurous film buffs nonetheless (esp.
with the equally polarizing recluse Stanley Kubrick gone--a pandering populist
by comparison), and for those who thought his last film was a brief reprieve
into spirituality and anti-narrative montage, well, for some, "To The
Wonder" will make that one look like something from the Syd Field
playbook...
Malick is known for encouraging improvisation on set and
then building his narratives in the editing room, pouring through hours of
takes and experimenting with wildly different plot structures, which often,
regrettably, rely too heavily on internal monologues and. As with all of his films
since "Badlands", "To the Wonder" went through five editors to reach its current form (I say
"current" and not "final", as the film had been recut for
TIFF since its Cannes premiere months earlier--who knows which version, if any,
will reach cinemas at year's end?). As
with "The Thin Red Line", which cut lead Adrian Brody to a glorified
extended cameo, actors Rachel Weisz, Amanda Peet, Barry Pepper, Jessica
Chastain and Michael Sheen were cut entirely from the film.
What is there, is, conceptually, Malick's simplest tale yet: When an American man (Affleck) returns to
Oklahoma after living in France with his foreign wife (Kurylenko) and her daughter
(Cahine), the culture clash proves more than she can bear and she flees back to
Europe with "Tatiana". "Neil"
then reacquaints himself with damaged "Jane", who is struggling to
deal with the loss of her own child and find some spiritual meaning. She's found some solace in the presence of
local Catholic priest "Father Quintana" (Bardem), who finds his own
faith is dwindling...
"The Wonder" if the title is never explicitly explained, but
according to press notes, it refers to the peak of the island
of Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy,
where Marina proclaims in her
voice-over that she will be “forever at peace”...
Affleck reportedly read the works
of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky and studied the roles of Gary Cooper to prepare for
his role, but onscreen, his unnamed character appears only in the peripheral
edges out of the frame or just a bit out of focus past someone's shoulder (he may
even crack a smile, twice). His
livelihood is equally opaque, but he's seemingly an environmental activist who
spends his time snooping around the oil fields on whom the people of Bartlesville
rely on for their living.
Bartem's natural presence and great
steely demeanour does much to compensate for the fact that Father Quintana's
inner monologue reveals much more than his exterior, which spends a lot of time
staring off in the distance and or skulking in doorways.
Kurylenko and McAdams have meatier roles, in that their respective characters at least evidence a pulse.
DOP Emmanuel Lubezki’s ever-roving Steadicam captures the
director's patented collisions of carefully (almost painfully) composed
compositions and the immediate, intimate verite of local colour (the memorable,
experience-ravaged Oklahoman extras seem to be genuine--if they are in fact,
actors, then they've been impressively coached). This sumptuous visual feast, featuring gorgeous
American and European locations and much twirling into sun flares by Korlenko
(or it simply recycled footage of Jessica Chastain from "Tree Of
Life"? It's sometimes hard to tell), is scored by a rousing score of
selections by Wagner, Tchaikovsky, and Haydn, to name a few...
After all that, where, ultimately, do I stand on
it? To quote Bruce Dern in "The
Trip": "just go with it man".
I went in with a good idea of what I was in for, and decided after
Korlenko's 2700th twirl to not fight it and surrender the sensory overload. I would recommend that you see it once for
its visual-and-auditory beauty, but I can't help but feel it's just too
precious, wilfully impenetrable, and let's face it, defiantly dull to connect with anyone beyond the
most devoted Malick disciples and the too-easy-to-flatter anti-blockbuster
brigade.
Malick has two more features in preparation for release--"King
Of Cups", and "Lawless", rumoured to be shot back-to-back--but
when either will be ready for release, and in what form, can only be, well, wondered...
©Robert J. Lewis 2012
