The Tree of Life, 2011

The Tree of Life, 2011
Director: Terrence Malick
Cast: Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain






Stage: Home theatre


The tree of life in short: The impressionistic story of a Texas family in the 1950s. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father (Brad Pitt). Jack (played as an adult by Sean Penn) finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith.


Preps: One of the hot ones in the movies now. I am wondering, if the fame is perceived for a reason or is it just Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, holding hands and packing up the place with people.



Reality: In this case, I am terribly wrong. The cast is brilliant, however the movie itself is strong and solid. It rocks the veins and makes you truly think about relationships you had with your parents, possibly still have and the way they impact the way you are living now. I suppose most of the shown facts about living in 50'es, as it is vividly shown in this piece, is absolutely honest. In sense, that it must have been normal to obey without saying. Kind of militaristic growing up. It is still very alive in some parts of the world, however I suppose that kids nowadays could see this picture as totally wrong - if coming from EU or US, or some more "supposed-to-be" - liberal spots of the world. At least with its outside face, that is.

Growing up, striving for father's attention and when getting it, getting a kick in your face, showing that he loves you. Aiming for some love and getting hard time in return. With the mother, the perfect figure of "father knows what's best for all of us". In that time it wasn't really common for women to work - they were more housewifes than something else. This also meant, they were somehow depending on the male side of the marriage to take care of the financial part and also, almost always represented the firm, solid opinion, with which you could not agree, still had to accept it, as the God of the house spoke.

In this sense, you are following a sad (sometimes even touching in positive sense) story and yearning for love of the parents. Also, in what way it can influence on your personality once you are grown. Somehow in his adult suit, the boy is still inside the man, yearning for his spot in the world. I see him as a distracted person, not knowing the role, making up for all the bad things that he did in his mind, while digging in the past, puzzling his mind with thoughts of past and father.
In some sense, we all need to think about our roots. However, the thinking in this piece evolves in some sort of distortion of one's mind. All deriving from harsh education and bringing up. Being first of three boys sometimes ends in parents giving extra hard time to the first that came. Because they need an example and the environment also expects it. Seen it also in present time, and in my opinion it can create a wreck out of a human being, once he/she is an adult. In this case, excellent show-up, how things can turn and how inverted can one person become with the fear that is chasing him way after him growing up into adult.
Side role, the mother, is also astounding. I think I could never imagine having myself in that period. On the other hand, once you are put into a situation and don't know that it's something else than what it should be (under circumstances, I firmly believe that most of the relationships between parents and children in that time were formalized in the same manner), well, if not proven otherwise, even if someone tortures you, you might believe it's the right thing. I am trying to say, that maybe this arrangement couldn't work in present time in our countries. However, in that time, a lot of distorted people were made in the same manner. Only in that time, it seemed OK with them. You can only count the victims afterwards.


My personal rating: 8,5 (a worthy movie to see and embed into your soul).

The tree of life on IMDB

The Lincoln Lawyer, 2011

The Lincoln Lawyer, 2011
Director: Brad Furman
Cast: Matthew McConnaughey, Marisa Tomei, Ryan Phillippe

Stage: home theatre, on a lovely evening with my best friend

The Lincoln Lawyer in short: Mick Haller is a defense lawyer who works out of his Lincoln. When a wealthy Realtor is accused of raping a prostitute, Haller is asked to defend him. The man claims that the woman is trying to get some money out of him. But when Haller looks at the evidence against him, he learns that this case might be linked to an old case of his.

Preps: MMMM, yummy cast. The topic seems to be one of my personal favourites. And I am curious about the impact that Tomei and Philippe will have. Am sure that McConnaughey will be charming as always.

Reality: Wow, a positive surprise. Starting off with the devil's advocate - a figure of a successful young man, having everything at the top of his knees, begging for his time and patience. Whenever you see a figure like this, you wonder, how will this figure end and what will be the downfall. Because it's too good to be true forever.

The plot is simple and the case this lawyer is looking through, seems very clear. As we are already used to seeing rich people getting away with everything we have to be certain also in this case, if something goes wrong, this rich kid will pay to get his ass off the hook. Unfortunately enough for him, he isn't bred on the right side of the alley, because sometimes money cannot solve everything. The devil's advocate brilliantly falls into several traps and somehow finds also the escape gates at all times.. all the time inbetween you have a gut feeling he's gonna die, he's gonna get hit/robbed/raped - something from this scale. Because you can be quite certain he's playing a dangerous game that could easily cost him his life. In the end, a surprising turnover that can leave you without a breath for a few seconds at least. Brilliantly played, excellent choice of scenery and a good flow of adrenalin inbetween. Can easily say one of better action adventure drama (all - in - one) mixes lately.

How much is the truth worth - is one of the questions this movie poses. And how can you buy it, if we start from the point that everything is for sale. How come a lawyer that defends people that go beyond, all of the sudden, regrets something he did in his past? Can you live with yourself or do you every now and then, get into remorsement phase in your life and want to pay off your stinking debts/some ruins you caused.. an interesting call McConnaughey makes while trying to make it up for a ruined life of one individual he acciddently discovered. How about he never discovered this mistake he made? Would he still be so full of himself? This coincidence makes the line of activities he's trying to make, completely different and reverses all things he once believed in. In some sense, you get the feeling that even a tough guy like this one has to have a heart and conscience at some point, which means that all of us are vulnerable up to some extent, you just need to find the right trigger. So this could be the clue, what the trigger might be for a lawywer that works for the dark side.

Brilliant act from Tomei, on the other hand. I just love her sparks and energy. All in all, for all freaks like me, that go bizerk on lawyer / trial content in a movie, and maybe once dreamed about being one of the guys in LA Law or McBeal, well, this is the piece to watch.

My personal rating: 8,0 (a good, solid piece, that will easily keep your ass in the seat).

The Lincoln lawyer on IMDB

An Officer and a Gentleman, 1982

An Officer and a Gentleman, 1982
Director: Taylor Hackford
Cast: Richard Gere, Debra Winger, David Keith





Stage. Home theatre


An Officer in short: Zack Mayo is a young man who has signed up for Navy Aviation Officer Candidate School. He is a Navy brat who has a bad attitude problem. GySgt Foley is there to train and evaluate him and will clearly find Zack wanting. Zack meets Paula, a girl who has little beyond family and must decide what it is he wants to do with his life.


Preps: wow, a long time no see classic, again in front of my eyes. This is why my mother adored Gere for such a long time. It was a definite win win for him and something to talk about in the eighties. No such movies today, unfortunately.


Reality: I am almost certain this movie served as a stage for two streams - one in Police Academy tone and the other in all Seagull marine movies. Name all the iterations you want, I am quite convinced that this piece started it all.

Yes, put in 80'ies. And combines all the pure things that we later on saw in many iterations. Mayo (Richard Gere) is sooooooo young in this piece you cannot believe your eyes. The wardrobe is like in those videos you can check out on VH1. Amazingly enough, the dialogues aren't really slick or fine tuned. The cast is not really brilliant. However, it's a classic you cannot afford to miss if you want to know the history of the movies. The hardcore training, the pain you see young officer is going through, the subtile meaning of a relationship and the way they couldn't afford to miss time at that point.

Making a relationship with an officer in that time was a code name for prostitution, as these things never were steady, never lasted and often ended in tears and forgotten kids those men left behind. Now you cannot imagine living in a world like this. However, there were benefits, because these young people weren't so burdened with everything that is happening around, like now young people need to think about. Like making your own way in a way that matters. And being surrounded by mass media, mass distribution of the news. In this movie, you see a niche, a hidden place from the rest of the world. Without internet, without your family, a friend around the globe being available on a click. Somewhere you go and get a training and focus on nothing else. Just this. And women, of course.

In present time nothing like this is possible. Unfortunately they don't hold academies on the islands miles away from civilization. The decisions, what to do with a perticular woman you like, are not that obvious as it seems in this piece. The decision to stay with someone is not based merely on liking, loving, but also on other factors, on which sometimes a person cannot make an influence or impact upon. Sometimes in present tense, everything is crashed by other factors. In the time, where this movie is filmed, all seemed to be pretty straightforward and obvious. The movie obviously also held ground for later huge success of Top Gun and many other wonderful pieces. But this one is the Father of them all in my perspective. And Gere made a tremendous impact on audience, and also grounds for his later popularity.

My personal rating: 8,0 (mmmmm, amazing piece. A must see for each filmophil)

An officer and gentleman on IMDB