To The Wonder (2012)

Directed by: Terrence Malick
Country: USA

Review: “To The Wonder” depicts love and its painful transformations, through a free-floating approach, dreamlike ambience, and ravishing images. Its message may seem unclear but certainly has to do with the arduous process that one has to go through in order to find balance, stability, and happiness, through love, both in its spiritual and physical forms. It also emphasizes many external aspects that can influence our decisions and path in this matter. Malick's highly stylized way of filming is perceptible through elegant plans illuminated by a captivating, tenuous light. The story of a couple who is struggling with the deterioration of their love, is confronted with the story of a priest who devotes his life to God. In both cases we can glimpse doubt, restlessness, tiredness, and oppression. These stories of love and sacrifice are intersected in such way that, at some point, led me to wrong assumptions. Since the dialogs are very few, the way to have access to the character’s thoughts was through their own background narration, expressed in the form of whispered poems or laments. At certain times, the film makes some pointless deviations that didn’t really add anything important to my final perception of the film. This fact weakened the final result but its defiant concept maintained the movie in satisfying levels. Sometimes vague, sometimes intense, “To The Wonder” is flawed but beautiful.