(4 stars out of five)Terrence Malick is the granddaddy of existential, poetic filmmaking. He's fond of studying the grass on the ground and the leaves on the trees just as much as the characters themselves. He's a strange character: he makes his films for himself, and no one else. He's 62 years old, and yet he's only made four films in his entire career (including the one in this review). After making Badlands and Days of Heaven in the 70's, he retired from filmmaking for over 20 years before returning with The Thin Red Line in 1998. Now, seven years later, comes his new film, which is also the first Malick film I've seen in the theater. It was an interesting experience, to say the least... Now, the audience walkouts for The Thin Red Line are almost legendary (people were expecting a war film, and instead found themselves watching philosophical conversations taking place amid picturesque shots of grass blowing in the wind at sunset), but the walkouts for this film were unbelievable. The theater was filled with a mixture of giggly teenaged girls anxious to see Colin Farrell, their boyfriends who were dragged along with them, and lots and lots of old couples, no doubt attracted to the film by the new TV ads, which compare the love story in the film with Titanic. So, as you can see, not quite the audience for this film. The movie starts off quickly enough, but about a half hour in, I saw the first walkout. The reason? The movie is one of the slowest-paced films in recent memory, with the movie's 2 ½ hour running time feeling more like 3 hours. It's not a problem for me; I actually enjoyed the film. But it is definitely - just like The Thin Red Line - not a film for mass audiences. Periods of 10, 20, even 30 minutes go by without a single line of dialogue spoken. There is a wonderful sequence, about 20 minutes long, that is simply one huge montage with a voiceover, nothing more. There are probably less than fifty actual lines of spoken dialogue in the film; almost the entire film is in voiceover, with the characters having inner monologues. People had no fucking clue what to make of this movie. I'm not exaggerating when I say over half of the people walked out. I will admit it - the film is a little long. A good 20-30 minutes could have been trimmed. But what we have here is decent. At least it wasn't longer than it is... Malick is famous for shooting hundreds of thousands of feet of film, and this movie had four editors - a sure sign that some major trimming was going on (The Thin Red Line's final runtime was 3 hours - cut in half from its original six hour running time). Sure, it drags a little bit. But there are real moments of beauty and honesty present, not just in nature, but between people. The acting is quite good. Newcomer Q'Orianka Kilcher is a revelation! I'd love to see her get a nomination, but this year is really crowded and this film was mostly ignored. A Malick film is famous for its photography, and this film is no different. Roughly half of the film was shot on 65mm as opposed to 35mm, and it really looks magnificent. Look for a cinematography nomination for this. So in summation, this is a film that is better than what most people will tell you. Just give it a chance. And lots...and lots... of patience.
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