"Tree of Life"

"Tree of Life" is one of those movies that will make the viewer sleepy with its slow-paced narrative. But it can also make one spring back to mental alertness with vividly poetic images of nature, the planets, the universe, etc.

It tells the story of a family of five. The mother is gentle and nurturing, seeing the goodness even in criminals. The father is strict and authoritarian, fearing that his children cannot fare well in the cruel world without teaching them the ways of the world. Jack, the eldest child, is torn between the two. as he reaches adolescence, he seems to have neglected his mother's teachings and experiments with violence and deviance.

The narrative has lots of flashbacks, with the older Jack shown to be reminiscing about his past. In the end, he "walks" with the people of his memory, his parents and brothers as they were when Jack was young.

What I love about this movie is its poetry, the poignancy of pictures of nature juxtaposed with the harsh environments created by man.

Some of the memorable quotes, mostlyl from the mouth of the mother:

"Help each other. Love everyone. Every leaf. Every ray of light. Forgive."

 "The nuns taught us there were two ways through life - the way of nature and the way of grace. You have to choose which one you'll follow."

"Grace doesn't try to please itself. Accepts being slighted, forgotten, disliked. Accepts insults and injuries. Nature only wants to please itself. Get others to please it too. Likes to lord it over them. To have its own way. It finds reasons to be unhappy when all the world is shining around it. And love is smiling through all things."

"The nuns taught us that no one who loves the way of grace ever comes to a bad end."

"I wanted to be loved because I was great; A big man. I'm nothing. Look at the glory around us; trees, birds. I lived in shame. I dishonored it all, and didn't notice the glory. I'm a foolish man."

"It takes fierce will to get ahead in this world. If you're good, people take advantage of you."