Film REVIEWS
list.co.uk/film DRAMA/EPIC THE TREE OF LIFE (12A) 138min ●●●●●
Terrence Malick painstakingly crafts films that are symphonic in structure, with the character of poetic, intensely personal statements on humanity’s inescapable fall from grace. The long-awaited The Tree Of Life confirms a drift towards cinema that dispenses with conventional narrative traditions to focus on impressionistic, dreamlike abstraction. The result is a sprawling, sometimes unfathomable epic on the endless conflict between ‘the way of nature and the way of grace’. There are three distinct elements within The Tree Of Life. The heart of the story and the most immediately accessible element is a lyrical portrait of a typical, all-American film in the Eden of 1950s suburbia. Three boys live under the thumb of a well-meaning but tyrannical disciplinarian father (Brad Pitt) and a radiant, loving mother (Jessica Chastain) – nature and grace in human form. The specifics of that family dynamic are contrasted with a history of life on Earth (including CGI dinosaurs) that evokes comparisons with 2001: A Space Odyssey, Disney’s Fantasia and a typical David Attenborough documentary. Finally, the film ventures into the territory of Bergman and Antonioni with melancholy contemporary scenes in which architect Jack (Sean Penn), a grown son from the 1950s family, seeks a sense of meaning to the circle of his life.
Soaring choral, classical music (Holst, Brahms, Mahler etc), gliding, restless camerawork, the frequent absence of dialogue and a constant sense of yearning for a state of grace gives The Tree Of Life the feeling of a heartfelt sermon urging a re-engagement with spirituality and a greater sense of wonder at the world around us. It may be frustratingly elliptical but ultimately there is clarity in the simple, even banal final observation that ‘the only way to be happy is to love’. Amen to that. (Allan Hunter) ■ General release from Fri 8 Jul.
THRILLER CELL 211 (18) 112min ●●●●● DOCUMENTARY BOBBY FISCHER AGAINST THE WORLD (12A) 93min ●●●●●
European genre cinema has been delivering some cracking titles of late, none more compelling than prison riot thriller Cell 211. Daniel Monzón’s award-winning Spanish hit takes a clever premise and moulds it into an intense, cat-and-mouse tale that combines strong characters and sweaty suspense. Cell 211 unfolds in a hell-on-earth prison. Sensitive Juan (Alberto Ammann) is
being shown around the facility prior to starting work as a new guard. When a riot erupts, he is hit by masonry and abandoned to his fate. His only hope of survival is to trade on the fact that none of the inmates have seen him. How far is he willing to go to ingratiate himself with the ruthless riot leader, Malamadre (Luis Tosar)?
The premise is sufficient to sustain the film but Monzón ups the stakes by
turning the riot into a moral battleground that redefines notions of villain and hero. There is plenty of meaty political subtext in all the testosterone-fuelled violence and even as the implausibilities start to pile up in the third act you are still willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. Two-thirds of a sensational film is still a considerable result. (Allan Hunter) ■ General release from Fri 15 Jul.
Arguably the greatest of all past chess masters, Bobby Fischer was certainly the best America has ever had. Like most geniuses, however, Fischer’s life was a bizarre trajectory of success, fame, delusion and ultimately (possibly) madness. Liz Garbus’ lovingly realised film peels away the various skins of this very
curious onion and like all good documentaries it excavates and finally uncovers a totally different story to the one expected. Prolific producer and director Garbus (her previous films include Shouting Fire, Coma and excellent documentary short Killing in the Name) utilises some amazing little-seen old footage (at one time Fischer was one of the biggest celebrities in the world) and a measured narrative arc to tell the odd tale of gifted child who went on to become a mascot of the American capitalist way when he beat Soviet master Boris Spassky in 1972 (at the height of the Cold War), and who later became a self-hating American and Jew.
Bobby Fischer Against the World may be slickly conventional but Garbus allows her audience to make up their own mind about this remarkable and strange man, pawn and one time king (of the world). (Paul Dale) ■ Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Fri 15 Jul.
23 Jun–21 Jul 2011 THE LIST 61