Martha Marcy May Marlene is an extraordinary showpiece for the younger sibling of the infamous Olsen twins, Elizabeth. Her performance in this strange critical indie hit shows remarkable talent and insight, a glorious naturality which just shines in the lead role. A remarkably naive, lost and traumatised young woman, Olsen manages to make each moment count; from one rather terrorising incident to a simple glance towards the horizon, there's such an intense beauty to everything she does with the role and 
she should definitely have the young ingenue spot in the Lead Actress line-up at next year's Oscar ceremony.
John Hawkes is also menacing; it's not as large a character as I would've liked, but nonetheless every moment he has, he is just enchanting. It's considerably more enticing than his Oscar-nominated performance in Winter's Bone (which I also enjoyed), frightening at times, charismatic at others. His role really doesn't get substantiated upon too much (which is probably the most disappointing aspect of the whole film) but with everything he has, it's a fantastic performance and hopefully one which will get him a few more supporting actor nods this year.
Overall, the film is extremely intense and thoroughly exploratory, though lacking any major release of tension. Durkin shows what a great ability he has, though the film does lack in some areas. Still, Olsen is wonderful and devastating, Hawkes is powerful and all-in-all, it's a thoroughly insightful, intriguing story. Although the film itself probably isn't going to be end-of-year-best level, Olsen certainly should be, and it's great to see such incredible talent at work.
The Tree of Life
clearly has some lofty aspirations, trying to depict the creation of the world and then attempting to give a sort of pseudo-philosophical discourse on creationism and evolution and life and such. It is clearly a thing of beauty; the visuals are amazing, the sequence of shots depicting the Big Bang and the beginnings of the Earth and the solar system are incredible, the score behind it is awesome, and together they are powerful, if slightly prolonged. Even the later scenes in the suburban and city environments are, if nothing else, well shot.
However, the compliments end here. The film itself is extremely tedious; the lack of direction in terms of plot may itself be very typical of Malick, but I think in this film it is very much to the detriment of the whole thing. There are three main sequences to the film: those depicting the creation of the universe, those with the family and those with Sean Penn's character lamenting on his past. Very little ties these together; the whole thing feels extremely disjointed, awkward and perplexing.
There is some depth in the narrative surrounding the family and ultimately the greatest disappointment for me was the real lack of precision in this narrative because there was clearly a great potential for this storyline. Pitt is quite good, Chastain is wonderful and the children do great jobs as well, especially the portrayal of the young Jack, by Hunter McCracken. In fact, McCracken's exploration of the identity of Jack is probably the real highlight of the film. Unfortunately, this exploration suffers because the audience's attention is constantly being drawn from Jack and onto Pitt's character, who is, for the most part, impenetrable (and that is no fault of Pitt's). There is a nice moment towards the end of the film which does allow us some insight into Pitt's character, but that insight is so fleeting, it does little to rectify the last two hours of suffering.
Then we are thrown into a sequence of shots starring Sean Penn, who really has little to do except to look empty and depressed. The latter part of his sequence is almost Bergman-esque, 
Seventh Sealstyle, which, although entirely pretentious, are almost fitting given that this film has pretty much been driving along on its last wheel for almost the entirety of its duration.
I'm sure fans of Malick will enjoy this, despite it certainly being far from his finest hour. The whole thing is adventurous, wrought with danger and intrigue. It certainly had grand aspirations. But it fails, quite spectacularly in my opinion. I'm sure many are bound to disagree, but for me, this is easily one film I would have been very happy not to see.
