I saw this today and I thought it was terrible. This was actually my introduction to Terrence Malick's films and I believe what Christopher Plummer said about him is true: he really needs a good screenwriter! Some of those lines were atrocious! And he needs to focus on telling a worthy story. This would have worked better as a short film! I'll still watch his other films because I've heard they're quite good. This wasn't unfortunately.
shareMalick frequently uses voiceovers in his films, often whispered ones. That is one reason that on the DVD of this film, the producers recommend that this film be watched with a high sound volume setting.
Malick never makes watching one of his movies easy for the audience. He poses questions in the visuals and dialogue that may never be answered in the film.
Malick considers his fans to be smart enough to come up with a plausible reason for what's seen on screen. Five different viewers may find 5 different plausible reasons for an event on screen. That's fine with Malick.
While I was pretty disappointed in "To the Wonder," Malick doesn't need someone to write his scripts like Plummer (I guess) said. I personally love his use of voice-over. It's usually very well done in that what the characters think almost always overpowers what they say.
In the case of "To the Wonder" it just seemed really shallow. It was like a cliffnotes version of an old Calvin Klein commercial. I'm not a fan of Affleck, either. In my opinion he can't act. He hasn't improved his abilities as an actor. He can only play himself. I do agree somewhat that there isn't much to work with in the script provided.
The acting in the film didn't complement the emotion of the dialogue (though it wasn't great) and cinematography.
Sorry it's your first Malick film. Try "The Thin Red Line." That's a better representation of Malick's strengths.
It's not all about walking backwards into the setting sun blowing dandelions in slow motion.
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malick fan here. i didnt like TRL as much as TOL and TTW.
Can this really be the end..to be stuck inside of mobile
with the Memphis blues again.
It's the same thing that almost ruined The Thin Red Line for me. The Tree of Life was a very good movie because it demonstrated Malick's ability to lay off the voiceovers and just let his extraordinary commands of images flow naturally. Here, he for some reason goes back to having these sentimental soundbytes to tell the audience what to feel.
The bitter thinkers buy their tickets to go find God like a piggy in a fair