To The Wonder - Movie Review

TO THE WONDER tells the story of Marina (Kurylenko) and Neil (Affleck), who meet in France and move to Oklahoma to start a life together, where problems soon arise. While Marina makes the acquaintance of a priest and fellow exile (Bardem), who is struggling with his vocation, Neil renews a relationship with a childhood sweetheart, Jane (McAdams). Bold and lyrical, the film is a moving, gorgeously shot exploration of love in its many forms. Written and directed by Terrence Malick.(c) Official Site

[tryptala]

I'm so glad I watched this movie despite all the negative chatter everywhere about it. This is a GREAT movie, much tighter, and thereby, much better than the Tree of Life, which I thought was tedious and patronizing to a mass audience. Keep going Terrence. It's your life. It's your adventure. Don't pander to the masses. You don't owe your audience anything.

[MobiusCoin]

My I like Malick because he makes movies the way a Renaissance painter worked on a Biblical scene. The plot is secondary to the evocative nature of the visuals. If nothing else, it is unique and often neglected in films which always so story oriented. The problem for me, is that which Tree of Life (and probably this film) is that modernity doesn't have that "painterly" aspect of counterpart, maybe photography. But Malick doesn't make films like Cartier Bresson takes pictures and...

[mellamomitch]

"See it at Your own risk" was ironically the best thing either of these two said. These reviewers say nothing of the great theme that pervades this film - love. What it means to actively love through runnig the risk of failure, enjoying the glory all around, struggling through disappointments and tragedies and rejoicing in triumphs. A serious review of To the Wonder without multiple viewings is impossible. Observe the film again and again. Bardem's cascading admonitions not even mentioned?! Wow

[jakejonescomedy]

Why is it that every Terrence Malick movie seems more obscure than the one before? And what artistic vision is he trying to put to the screen? Instead of dismissing the film's meandering pace and empty space, these two critics should have tried to ask that question.

[RockBottomRiser]

I have never understood the accusations of "preachy, pretentious" for Malick. Especially since few can even agree on what the film is preaching, it's the opposite if anything. His films ask questions, nowhere does he try to teach the viewer lessons or have all the important answers.

[harr]

Bartlesville Oklahoma is not, by any means, the most boring place in America. IMO it is actually an incredibly interesting town. I once stayed at Frank Lloyd Wright's tower while passing through. Trust me, small towns get much worse!

[DarthSmee]

They should put Christy's quote at 7:11 on the dvd cover

[alphacause]

This looks like Malick's other film, Tree of Life - a film with very engaging visuals, but a dull story. Few directors can match the cinematographic beauty of Malick's films. But where Malick is a master of aesthetics, his storytelling is abysmal. It's almost as if he crafts beautiful shots at random, and then haphazardly constructs a story around the imagery - as if the story is an afterthought. That is why many who watch Malick's films liken them to a very long cologne commercial.

[DELLBIRD]

There seems to be obvious stylistic comparisons between this movie and Upstream Color, which you both loved regardless of its ephemeral quality and not really knowing what was going on. So I’m just curious why, with 2 films where experiencing it trumps a narrative understanding of it, one worked and one didn’t.

[RockBottomRiser]

What are you talking about? A lot of people loved The Tree of Life and it's not the critic's job to fall in line with popular opinion. Should they just give the Transformers movies 10/10 in that case?

[JohnnyCatFitz]

Oh, no. I want to want to watch this but she says - The tree of life has a narrative drive compared to this 😐 but that one voice over by Javier Bardem is so alluring, I will probably see this.

[PRIVATEAYEIEYE]

Looks like a wide-screen antidepressant ad.

[leivabernie]

you guys should review The Thin Red Line. I loved that movie.

[kevdav]

No fair discussing the movie before doing so on camera.

[WaitingtoHit]

A 7 would be saying it's good and recommended. A 6.8 stops just short of that. This is one of those reviews where I would immediately go to Ebert's site to see what he thought. Luckily, he got to see this before he passed. He gave it 3 1/2 out of 4 stars. I'll be seeing this.

[TheZurul]

This is not an ad, penguinworm. I just really want to get the word out for a top notch show that I think any real film buff or movie geek would get a kick out of

[Verdoux]

I have never understood why critics love Malick so much, when all he does is make pretty pictures without any content. If those two made similar excuses for lets say Michael Bay they would be laughed out of the room.

[moviedude]

Christy doing nothing other than being a caring, attentive mother for her children is just damn hot!

[MrMattyMan]

Didn't you guy review this already?

[rdy]

A slideshow is not a movie, no matter how beautiful the imagery or how the competent the cinematographer is. His fans of his latter work are the definition of snobbery being too afraid to be honest or too deluded by their own self importance or self knowledge to see the obvious trickery with these films.