“Help each other. Love everyone. Every leaf. Every ray of light. Forgive.”

The Tree of Life impressed me in many aspects, but man, the thing that I will take away from it the most is just how much of God’s presence you can feel throughout it. I don’t honestly think there has ever been a film that I’ve felt was so strongly a religious experience in my entire life. These are the types of faith-based movies we should be making, because this film isn’t trying to preach to you about the existence of God; it shows you.

The way it tells its story is definitely on the more unconventional side, making this one of those films that is much more of an experience rather than a traditional narrative. From beginning to end, it conveys its themes and story through visuals and the feelings it creates. I’ve seen a lot of people online give this movie some flak for being pretentious, and I can certainly see why, but I honestly think that a film can be as artsy as it wants to, as long as it leaves an impact, and this film definitely did.

The most obvious thing that people point to as pretentious is the cinematography, but to be honest, I think, and I mean this sincerely, they are missing the point. Not only is there a Godly presence felt through the story, but through nature as well, which is absolutely essential to its impact, and is conveyed through its absolutely stunning visuals. Other than one spotty CGI scene, literally every frame is breathtaking (not to sound dramatic). A lot of it almost looks like something you’d see straight out of a nature documentary.

I also just loved the story of the family, in general. It’s incredibly sincere and down to earth, and not overly dramatic for the sense of being dramatic type stuff. I mean, it definitely is dramatic, but in a way that feels completely realistic to how a family would actually live and struggle. It’s mainly about the struggling relationship between a son named Jack and his father, played by Brad Pitt, who gives a terrific performance by the way. You can tell that Pitt’s character is really trying to be both a good father and husband, but is bogged down by, well, life. His son, on the other hand, is starting to wonder about his own life and morality in the process.

Speaking of down-to-earth, not only do all of the actors give terrific performances, including the child actors, but, adding onto what I said earlier, everything feels so incredibly realistic. The way the kids act, play, interact, and all that kind of stuff isn’t something you really see in movies all that often, but once you see it here, it feels so reminiscent, at least for me, of what being a child really felt like. The parents’ relationship also felt pretty similar in regards to realism, though I wish there was a little bit more focus on it throughout the runtime.

When it comes to poignancy, the whole film is obviously very powerful, but the beginning and end are really something else. It starts off in a way that grips you emotionally, before turning into a bit of a different type of experience, and comes pretty much full circle by the end in that respect. Both parts are also, while kind of more clear when you look into it, still pretty much up to your point of view as to how you look at the story in a deeper sense. These are definitely the most confusing parts of the film, as you’d probably guess, but to be honest, understanding them completely really isn’t all that important because they still hit all of the right emotional beats.

As far as the mixed goes, yeah, this is definitely a movie that, again, is quite oftentimes more of an experience than something you try to understand fully and completely. There are plenty of moments of random shots of nature that are really powerful, but are really confusing as far as deciphering why they are there. I still don’t even fully understand it after having watched it. The reason I don’t list this as a negative, however, is that it’s powerful stuff and hits nonetheless.

I really don’t have negatives to say, though. This set out what it meant to achieve pretty much perfectly and was a really great experience in the process. I would highly recommend this for even people who don’t believe in God, as it really does make you look at life in a different way.