Critics say that Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life is incomprehensible in its juxtaposition of the Big-Bang and primeval myth with a 1950s/60s family drama.
The O’Brien family experiences a renching loss, despite their confidence that those who live by grace (= self-sacrifice) are safe. In the face of loss, the most natural thing in the world is to raise the question of the universe: What’s this all about? What do we mean to Him? What’s the use of living in grace, if we all die anyway, the best earlier than others?
The film begins with a question from the book of Job, and the whole film is a meditation on the Lord’s words, “Where were you . . . ?”
The incomprehension is incomprehensible.
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