To the Wonder (2013)

O. K. guys. I have watched all the movies from this director. I really liked The Thin Red Line, you know, during the war a Captain and a Sargeant really care about the men of their company, while the batallion colonel just care about promotions and medals. That said, I miss the point of all the other Malick's movies. ¿What is it, lack of communication amog human beings, or between husband and wife?. This movie, to me, it was the same movie that I have ever seen from Malick, whith the exception of the Thin Red Line. This guy should reinvent himself. I didn't get the point of Bardem's character. The movie should have been shorter...

This is the worst movie I have ever seen. It's not a movie it's a screensaver. There is no dialogue except whispered incomplete voiceovers. There is no plot and no character development. There is nice moody classical music and nice moody visuals of people walking and twirling around in fields, supermarkets, streets, houses and churches, interrupted with domestic violence. It's two hours long and nothing happens.Do not buy or rent this movie. You will have more fun choosing some of your favourite music and watching the gorgeous screensavers on your AppleTV or similar streaming device. This movie is such torture it's probably shown 24 hours a day in Guantanamo Bay prison.Tree of frickin' Life was better than this! At least it had a story, characters, conflict, redemption, a dramatic arc blah, blah, besides the pretty meditative images of sunlight through trees and inscrutable close-ups.Ben Affleck is bored, frustrated and angry but maintains an expressionless impassivity throughout. It doesn't matter because we mostly see the back of his head or parts of his work wear anyway. He doesn't have any dialogue at all.Olga Kurylenko, who has the classic face of a European beauty, plays an undiagnosed, untreated bi-polar single mother who falls in love with Affleck in France, (the title has something to do with the French tourist attraction Mont St Michel) and thinks she needs to live with him in America. She spends most of the time regretting this decision and by turns, taunting and seducing her boyfriend to get some kind of reaction out of him. They grow to hate each other but not as much as the audience hates both of them.Olga's visa runs out so she takes her daughter back to Paris, where she's lonely because her (obviously sensible) daughter leaves to live with her father and is much happier with him. Olga is unemployed and moping, dreaming of the USA again. She returns to Ben and managers to convince Ben to marry her for a green card. (Bad idea, because meanwhile, Ben has the hots for a normal mid-western American girl who won't do it with him). So he and Olga have a miserable little marriage in a miserable little town and the autumn sunsets are pretty.The only two interesting people are the priest having a crisis of faith, played by Javier Bardem and the sweet object of Ben's lust played by Rachel McAdams who is a virginal horse whisperer or something to do with horses. Neither of these two characters are given a story line, much less a narrative arc, although if Ben and Olga somehow died in a car accident and the other two took over the movie it would have been much better... Horse Whisperer goes to Father Javier for confession - Father J falls for the pretty blond and wants to leave The Church - the steadfast faith and pure, simple life lead by the Horse Whisperer instead reignite Father's faith in God and his plan, - the Horse Whisperer joins Father J in his good work counselling and consoling the poor and the incarcerated, and they start a business training ex-cons to be ranch-hands or something... sorry I was daydreaming. This movie will do that to you.Anyway, back with poor Ben and crazy Olga, at one point Olga goes onto a rooftop to look at the sky, (AGAIN) and I couldn't help yelling JUMP! at the screen. This Malick monstrosity is designed to play on a screen in an art gallery on an endless loop for passers-by to gawk at as if it's a work of art. Pretentious European crap. Avoid at all costs.For the people who gave this film 5 or 6 because the scenery is pretty - well the cinematography isn't really that good and it's mostly shot in low light in some cold, boring part of the mid-west which most people would just fly over anyway. The story of the tragic lives of the poor locals (visited by the priest) could have made a much more engrossing film.For the people giving this film a 9 or a 10, you're just doing that to inflate your sense of cultural superiority. These days you don't have to go to film festivals to see arthouse films, they're all over the streaming services, so everyone's seen them. It's just that this one is a complete failure.

When you are with Terrence Malick, abandon your popcorn and prepare to see deeper.Characters in the movie are balancing on the thin line between reality and illusion. "Her rich inner world", they say - however, so often it's a masking cover for an unseen desert, scorched earth, such as Marina carries inside. She is dancing yet inward she is struggling to breathe, let alone to speak out. She cannot give love to Neil or her own daughter because there's nothing left to give. She sincerely is trying, but once her soul was ripped out, perhaps a long time ago, it will not be reborn from nothing and it can't be helped. Same with padre - burned from the inside, nothing's left. Ghosts rather than people.And maybe - just maybe - we could make an effort that our loved ones never become ghosts like that. Rise to the wonder with them in every little thing we do, celebrate each moment of true emotion. Be humans.

Neil (Ben Affleck) falls for Marina (Olga Kurylenko) in Paris while traveling in Europe. He brings her and her daughter Tatiana to his home in Oklahoma. Marina feels isolated in the suburban existence and Neil reconnects with childhood love horse rancher Jane (Rachel McAdams). While Marina is back in Paris, Neil starts a romance with Jane. Marina is lost in Paris and returns to marry Neil. Meanwhile local priest Father Quintana (Javier Bardem) is struggling with his faith.Terrence Malick knows how to shoot a beautiful shot. Every scene is a thing of beauty. Even the suburban sameness has a fascinating look. The scenes have a flowing feel to them. However, most of the movie is a low tension affair. There are a couple of dramatic scenes but this is not a movie of intensity. Honestly Rachel McAdams is beyond beautiful. She is electric. I think the movie would work better with her as Marina. No offense to Olga, but Rachel is the better actress.