This very beautiful film is a montage of images more than a linear story. We watch the birth of the earth, of life itself intercut with a family growing up in the 50s and also the elder brother (Sean Penn) as an adult. In fact it's as if Sean Penn's character is dead and he's rewinding and fast forwarding through the videotape of his life.
I really enjoyed the young actors in this and their scenes together ring true, successfully conjuring up that magical no-time of childhood, endless days and tireless play but also the equally important moments of strangeness, peer pressure and confusion. The trust scene of this film is heart wrenching and made me think of my own sister whom I put through the trust ringer by making her lie on her back while I dropped and caught objects over her face, including a pair of scissors tied to a string (!)
Unfortunately the adult actors are all miscast, the music is bombastic, there's a constant whispery voice over that becomes patronising and annoying and some extremely hammy choices of images to suggest heaven, doorways in the desert and people dressed in white on a beach - bleergh.
I've seen all of Maliks' films and he is a masterful film maker however this feels too soft for him and his theme of nature vs grace is somewhat preposterous. Being a good person and having fun doesn't have anything to do with grace (faith) and working hard at a job you hate and being a mean dad doesn't have anything to do with nature. Malik seems to see faith only in controlled nature not in true nature which includes death at any time for no reason.
In closing, I always notice actors with pierced ear holes in movies and this one has a nice close up of 1950s Brad Pitt with double pierced ears! come on cg it out.
NO - white bread
