Written by: Terrence Malick
Starring: Ben Affleck, Olga Kurylenko, Rachel McAdams, Javier Bardem, Tatiana Chiline
Rating: [3.5/5]
Some filmmakers have this way to operate in a manner that comes across as incredibly singular in their approach and how they seek to evoke feeling through their works. Something so definitive where watching anything they have made strikes an immediate recognition of the individual you are watching right before you. Terrence Malkick has undoubtedly proven to fall into this category as a filmmaker and with To the Wonder he crafts something devoid of a firm plot but rather a mood piece on love that works so well.
After spending time in Paris, Neil (Ben Affleck) meets Marina (Olga Kurylenko) where they fall in love and he brings her and her young daughter to live with him in the United States. While initially having a fiery romance, things become a bit more complicated when they get back to the States and the reality of their circumstance becomes more apparent.
Recommending a Terrence Malick film to anyone comes with fully acknowledging what individuals seek from their films. It displays why Malick does not exist as a household name outside of cinephiles but judging by his history, he probably prefers it that way. He takes this very spiritual approach to all of his works but does so in such an unconventional manner in how he captures it all making it quite accessible for others if they cannot get on its wavelength. While To the Wonder struggles with holding its narrative, the manner in which he captures this heartbreaking journey presents such an entrancing experience.
With this feature seeing its release shortly after his unquestioned masterpiece The Tree of Life, the expectations for this feature sat fairly sky high, which makes sense it received the reception it did considering this feature carries a similar approach but to a lesser degree. This occurs through the camera placement and the way the characters speak to one another. Considering a worse version of The Tree of Life does not fully designate it as a bad movie, seeing as step down from a masterwork such as that one still has the opportunity to be good, which certainly proves to be the case here.
Through this effervescent experience, we see the potential and subsequent destruction of love. This appears for Neil and Marina in multiple stages where they glide through this fun-loving initial experience between the pair, which gets heavily impacted by what it means for Marina and her daughter to live in America. One where she feels this isolation where her only source of calmness comes from Neil who cannot always provide what she needs. It bears down on this reality of love being quite easy when on vacation and away from all other responsibilities but when push comes to shove, the true nature of individuals releases itself when back out in the real world. A world where rent is due and bills need to be paid brings these stressors to something that faces its test for the very first time. Malick does so well in framing what makes their initial affair something so magical and touching between the pair but rather fleeting when comparing what it looks like when looking into the real world.
This push and pull between these two then has its consequences with others in their lives, which includes Marina’s daughter as well as an old friend of Neil’s in Jane (Rachel McAdams) who later gets integrated into this story. Malick creates a web around these two allowing them to share in what makes them special but also incredibly pliable as a couple in the way they can tear each other apart and therefore the others around them. Mixing this all up with the faith element and the addition of Father Quintana (Javier Bardem) further emboldens the religious attributes of this feature and how it correlates with the love one person has for another.
Using the beautiful Mont-Saint-Michel off the coast of Normandy to beautiful effect, wondrous cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki, and an overall calming tone set by Terrence Malick, To the Wonder absolutely worked for me. It doesn’t make anything necessarily firm through its plot but arguably never needed to because of what it seeks to communicate through the feelings it elicits. The peaks and the troughs of this feature allow it to fully bring you into these relationships and make for a movie not necessarily unique within the filmography of Terrence Malick, but definitely out in the marketplace of films allowing this to be something to largely appreciate.
Films with Josh 
