Plot
After visiting Mont Saint-Michel, Marina and Neil come to Oklahoma, where problems arise. Marina meets a priest and fellow exile, who is struggling with his vocation, while Neil renews his ties with a childhood friend, Jane.
Filming Locations: Mont Saint-Michel, Manche, France
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Did You Know?
Trivia:
It is Terrence Malick's first film under two hours in length since 1978. See more »
Quotes:
User Review
To The Wonder is wonderful
Rating:
Terrence malick, director behind last years most discussed picture,
'The Tree of Life', has snuck his new film 'to the wonder' into the
venice film festival. I came here to see The Master, but was also
interested in Malicks new film. i was hesitant to get excited for it
though. Malick is widely regarded as a control freak as a director,
meditating for years, and releasing his films incredibly infrequently.
i felt that it was way too early between drinks for malick to release
another work. after such a personal film like TTOF, i thought this
might be more of a minor work, like how the Coen brothers did No
Country and followed up with the minimalistic screw-ball comedy 'burn
after reading'. How unprepared and wrong i was.
To The Wonder is a magnificent film. The tree of life was a towering
achievement IMHO, and this film doesn't fall short by much in terms of
scope, ambition and achievement. by any standards its a great film. its
a strong addition to malick's small yet vital body of work. The acting
is very good, but like TTOF, takes a a bit of a back seat for malick to
do his thing. Affleck and McAdams a very good, as are bardem and
kurylenko. i don't want to give away to many plot specifics or
character details. most of that is in the lengthy plot synopsis
released online yesterday anyway. it is very dream-like, and has a lack
of dialogue like TTOF. it tells most of its story through imagery,
music and how characters physically act towards each other. i never
liked affleck as an actor before this. he's good here, but i wouldn't
have minded someone else in the role.
About what affleck said yesterday. that to the wonder makes TTOF look
like transformers. that statement is so exaggerated and pretty much
wrong. if anything, TTOF is still more experimental than TO THE WONDER.
that doesn't detract from the huge ambition of this film though. I'm so
excited to see malick working quicker now. it really is a dream to have
malick films in 3 successive years. next year is knight of cups.
couldn't be more excited. like TTOF, this film will richly reward
repeat viewing, but is a little more accessible than TTOF. people who
had problems with the whole universe and dinosaurs thing in TTOF wont
have to worry here. although ambitious, it is a little more grounded,
and will be more palatable to a bigger audience. thats not to say that
the mainstream will embrace this film, because they wont. its a malick
film through and through, and i couldn't be more grateful for that.
Before i saw this, the race for my favourite film of the year had
really boiled down to THE MASTER (which was great, but still
processing) and BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD. Malick's film has opened
up the field. 5/5
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