The Movie: A successful architect (Sean Penn) observes a tree being planted in the courtyard of a huge skyscraper and a stream of memories unfold, both personal and metaphysical. He recalls his childhood growing up in Texas in the 1950s, reflecting on the balance between his graceful mother (Jessica Chastain) and dominant, authoritarian father (Brad Pitt), and how his upbringing informs his understanding of life. What Makes It Original: The heavy spiritual and religious themes which are explored in Tree of Life may well have been handled with a didactic approach, but Terrence Malick's expressionistic take renders them altogether more sublime and open to interpretation. It's an ambiguous strategy and one which divided critics and audiences alike, but it's hard not to be impressed by Emmanuel Lubeski's luminous cinematography, which seems to capture something of the fleeting, temporary nature of how memory works like few other films have achieved. Bursts of sunlight, snatches of conversation, the warmth of a child's body close to its mother all merge into a final product closer to a tone poem than a conventional narrative.
