THE TREE OF LIFE

“Terrence Malick's mad and magnificent film descends slowly, like some sort of prototypical spaceship: it's a cosmic-interior epic of vainglorious proportions, a rebuke to realism, a disavowal of irony and comedy, a meditation on memory, and a gasp of horror and awe at the mysterious inevitability of loving, and losing those we love.” - Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

“Many films diminish us. They cheapen us, masturbate our senses, hammer us with shabby thrills, diminish the value of life. Some few films evoke the wonderment of life's experience, and those I consider a form of prayer.” - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

“Notice....I didn't call [it] an experimental film. I recall another very bold filmmaker, Russia's Andrei Tarkovsky, balking at the designation. ‘There is no experiment,’ Tarkovsky said, ‘you've either got a vision or not; you either create the work or you don't.’ Well, Malick has created the work, and it is a complete and fulfilled and often amazing vision.” - Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies

“THE TREE OF LIFE manages to showcase both man's glory and his inestimable smallness. Life, in the end, is not about us making a mark. It's about tuning our ears to the symphony of life around us, paying attention to the bigger story, and doing our best to love each other and receive grace in the time we've been given.” - Brett McCracken, Christianity Today