To The Wonder

TO THE WONDER

Director : Terence Malick

Year : 2013

Genre : Romance

Rating : **1/2

 

Starring Olga Kurylenko, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams and Javier Bardem, 'To The Wonder' is the latest directorial effort from the great American auteur Terence Malick, whose work captivates and intrigues the world and has inspired a generation of filmmakers. While some of his movies may fall into parodic pretention and overzealous sentimentality, Malick has a way of merging visuals and music in a hauntingly beautiful symphony and he does just that with his newest offering. However, falling into the exact same traps as he did with his previous film 'The Tree Of Life', he falters at the screenplay and narrative levels and as a result, 'To The Wonder' is a hypnotic but  extremely dull film. With unlikable characters, a script which is full of metaphorical paraphrase and philosophical conundrums and a narrative which really fails to follow regular conventions, 'To The Wonder' comes across as an art installation much more suited to the corridors of a museum rather than the screens of our independent and multiplex cinemas.



'To The Wonder' follows the lives of 4 different people who are each battling with their values and their spirituality and whose storylines connect in various ways; sometimes through relationships and sometimes through enormous coincidence. Ben Affleck and Olga Kurylenko play a young couple who move to the United States after meeting in Paris and as the film plays on, we see the breakdown of their relationship and how each of them deal with the grief and strain. Rachel McAdams plays an old flame of Affleck's who manages to find a place in his heart and soon begins a tumultuous and rather volatile partnership. Javier Bardem plays a lone priest who is battling with reality and his slowly waning devotion to God and is forever trying to find both inner and outward peace. 

There is absolutely no doubt that Terence Malick is one of the most important directors working in cinema today and there are many moments in 'To The Wonder' which show this. With amazing camera work and an eye for gorgeous visuals and cinematography, Malick proves to us that the image on screen is much more important than the characters and the narrative arcs. But this is exactly why 'To The Wonder' falls so flat. We are given too many shot of Kurylenkno dancing in cornfields and bounding around supermarkets and we given very little in terms of character development or storyline. Arguments break out between her and Affleck multiple times through the film and we are given absolutely no explanation at all of why this is. This makes it extremely difficult to sympathise with either one of them and actually turns us against each character. The script is equally infuriating with endless lines of inane dialogue about philosophy, love and the bigger picture. Replicating the tone of a suicide note or the moping's of a teenager who has just been dumped, the dialogue and non diegetic voiceover reeks of pretention and self importance, slowing the film down to an almost unbearably slow pace.

As mentioned, the screenplay is very elusive and rather confusing so it makes it very difficult for us to relate or identify with any of the characters on screen. For stars of this calibre, the actors in 'To The Wonder' are given virtually nothing to do but look out of windows and wander aimlessly through giant fields. While great actors, both Javier Bardem and Rachel McAdams could be completely cut out of this film and this would make for a more cohesive narrative and more engaging story. Intercutting between different storylines in rather sporadic intervals, Malick jumbles his characters and motivations and there are many moments throughout the film in which I was totally lost. To me, 'To The Wonder' would have worked much better as a tale about the breakdown of a relationship rather than as a philosophical commentary on life and death.

Full of unlikable characters, nonsensical preaching and a somewhat distracting, but admittedly awe inspiring camera style, 'To The Wonder' is a good looking bore. I'm sure that it will win numerous awards and will cement Malick's place as one of the modern greats; but to me, it is a film without a trace of restraint. Maybe in the directors head the film makes complete sense.  For me personally, 'To The Wonder' is a confusing exercise which really could have done with more explanation and much less ostentation.