“Tree of Life” and “The New World” helmer Terrence Malick has always been a divisive filmmaker, and his latest feature is continuing that trend.
Many hardcore Malick fans were concerned about early talk last year that “To The Wonder”, his latest completed film, would be his most ‘conventional’ film to date.
Having just premiered at the Venice Film Festival however to both boos and cheers, reviews indicate the movie is even stranger if more modest than “Tree of Life”. Word is the film still has only the barest bones of a narrative, while Malick’s Christianity is as much a key component of its gestation as it was in ‘Tree’.
Part of the controversy is the dialogue – or rather the lack of it. Most of the film’s spoken words are done in voice over.
One review claims Ben Affleck’s character, whom at last report was the male lead, utters around a dozen lines throughout the near two-hour film. Others have already unfairly compared his work here to a piece of set dressing.
Both Affleck and Rachel McAdams’ characters seemed to have been pushed to the side to some extent, with Olga Kurylenko taking center stage and spending most of the film dancing and twirling across picturesque public thoroughfares.
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