To The Wonder

Ben Affleck   d/ Terence Malick

After Tree of Life when Malick approached greatness but fell just a bit short I had high hopes for this one...hopes dashed on the stiff, unyielding rock of the body/persona of Ben Affleck. Was this part simply beyond his range or was he poorly directed?

For an hour I was with this film. The thought that continually came to mind was cinematic poetry. Non-linear, impressionistic, occasionally beautiful, perhaps moving toward profound. By the second hour the ineptitude of Affleck’s performance crushed my attempt to elevate it. He was awful. Why in the world would any woman fall in love with this guy? Let alone give up everything to be with him?

Malick seemed to have no sense of humanism, no basis in the reality of human interactions from which to launch his metaphysical ruminations. His castle of dreams collapsed into the sand on which it was built. Watta shame. Maybe next time.

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