Film Review: To the Wonder

Director:  Terrence Mallick

Starring:  Ben Affleck, ​Olga Kurylenko, Javier Bardem & Rachel McAdams

In 2011  director Terrence Mallick came to my attention when I went to see his film The Tree of Life. It was one an unforgettable cinema experience. A film that was completely different to other films I would usually watch but it was one that I thought about for days. It made me think as well as feel something. When I heard Malick's new film entitled To the Wonder was coming to one of my local cinemas I couldn't wait to watch another unconventional film by him. Did it live up to my expectations? Yes!

To the Wonder is a beautiful and powerful film by Malick, whose main focus for this film is love and religion. The story follows the ups and downs of the relationship between Neil (Affleck) and Marina (Kurylenko). Neil is an American whilst Marina is a French single mother. They both decide to move to America, where their love for each other begins to fade. During these difficult times Marina comes across a priest (Bardem) who is struggling to have faith in his religion whilst Neil  encounters a childhood friend (McAdams) who he begins to reconnect with.

The script is, for the majority of the time, passionately written. There are a few lines where I found myself slightly confused to what they meant. The lines written along with the beautiful cinematography feels like a collaboration between a poet and a painter. Both different arts interwoven  in order to create this effective mise en scene. Though the film concentrates on visuals for the narrative more than dialogue it felt as though the use of physicality through the characters was the dialogue. Mallick seems to be one of those directors who believes actions speak louder than words and here he shows that. Though the film is beautifully shot I always felt as though the story wasn't overshadowed by the cinematography.

The acting was naturalistic and as a result made me believe in the characters and in times felt a slight connection. I did, however, find Affleck to be slightly uncomfortable in scenes where his character has no motives.  His character Neil wasn't as well presented compared to the others. Whilst other character's objectives were shown clearly, Neil's wasn't. However, as I carried on watching the film I started to believe maybe that was the whole point. As the story develops Marina realises how distant and mysterious Neil becomes and it feels as though that's how we as an audience should feel too, we should view Neil as a complete mystery that we want to solve but know we may never get to.  

Though I couldn't keep my eyes off the stunning imagery shown I still felt that I was somewhere familiar, somewhere that I felt I could connect to. Having it set in a modern period was possibly a reason I felt a closer connection to this story as well as the themes of love and questioning the existence of God. Different aspects of love are explored in this film and I felt as though anyone could find even a fragment of it that they could connect with.

The narrative is highly unconventional but this shouldn't come as a surprise if you have watched The Tree of Life. It was reported that Malick had edited out performances from actors including Michael Sheen, Jessica Chatstein and Rachel Weisz and it felt as though their absence caused holes in the narrative to occur. However, for me this did not create too much of a problem as I found the story to still continue even with missing parts. Malick doesn't want to make the narrative easy for his audience and I believe in this film he wanted them to keep up with the story even when months or years had passed without us being fully aware.

Watching To the Wonder is like observing a painting, what you see before you could be viewed as something completely different in the eyes of another. That is one of the reasons why I loved this film, it allows audiences to have their own interpretation of it,  play an active role whilst viewing. When I left the cinema, like I did with The Tree of Life it left me thinking as well as feeling something. It made me wonder at how love can release a variety of emotions within someone. It can make someone happy, angry, confused or even upset. I believe Malick achieved what he set out to do and though this has received harsh reviews from many critics and film goers I frankly believed it is one of the best films I have seen this year.