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I think in terms of audience reaction, leaving aside the casting etc which are perfectly valid points as to audience expectation, the film is the most challenging in terms of its relationship to narrative. Classical Hollywood narrative (with certain reinforcing exceptions) takes its lead from the theater, act structure and what not, and so many many films could just as easily be radio plays and in terms of narrative lose nothing. You would still be able to tell what was going on. Abbas Kiarostami made a film which showed only the faces of the audience as they watched another film, the story of which was totally comprehensible without ever seeing the film. Tree of Life seems at first to renounce plot and thus is highly frustrating to an audience versed in classical narrative. My own experience when watching it was an initial impatience for the film to 'get going'. Once I realized that the film was not ever going to do that, once narrative had to some extent dissolved what else did we have? If audiences had been told this isn't a film it's a symphony with pictures they would have been prepared the way you prepare yourself to be a little bored before going to a classical music performance or a jazz concert. You'll get something out of it, that's part of the contract, but it won't get going, it won't give you that for free. Of course narrative is much more resilient and varied than we expect and so narrative in the Tree of Life does re-emerge and in fact could be said never to disappear but it is more purely cinematic narrative and I would argue we are not used to seeing this level of cinematic (as opposed to radio play) narrative in feature films. A complaint I have heard frequently is that 'nothing happens', which is kind of funny because the problem the film might have is that 'everything happens' from the birth of the universe to the death of universe, with the story of the O'Briens in-between. Other complaints I have less patience with. The Guardian had a feature that takes pot shots at it for looking like an advert and using a mishmash of National Geographic imagery and Classical FM soundtrack. I think there is an odd snobbery to this. National Geographic produce some excellent documentaries and have an ambition to show the diversity world which is frankly laudable. And in what way could a film use classical music and avoid the Classical FM shot? These are a few ideas. I wrote two longer pieces on Malick at the following links below for anyone who might be interested in reading more. http://www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk/features/2011/07/06/malicks-magic-hour/ http://www.alternatetakes.co.uk/?2011,5,296 Best Wishes John Bleasdale -- Film-Philosophy After hitting 'reply' please always delete the text of the message you are replying to To leave, send the message: leave film-philosophy to: [log in to unmask] Or visit: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/film-philosophy.html For technical help email: [log in to unmask], not the list -- Film-Philosophy journal: http://www.film-philosophy.com/ Film-Philosophy Conference (6-8 July 2011): http://www.film-philosophy.com/conference/ Contact: [log in to unmask] --