aaron1506
Joined Dec 2017
Welcome to the new profile
Our updates are still in development. While the previous version of the profile is no longer accessible, we're actively working on improvements, and some of the missing features will be returning soon! Stay tuned for their return. In the meantime, the Ratings Analysis is still available on our iOS and Android apps, found on the profile page. To view your Rating Distribution(s) by Year and Genre, please refer to our new Help guide.
Badges3
To learn how to earn badges, go to the badges help page.
Ratings745
aaron1506's rating
Reviews2
aaron1506's rating
To the Wonder is a bold and artistically ambitious piece of filmmaking, which is more than can be said of most films, but it's ultimately a failure.
Malick's film is concerned with themes of love and religion. The director has clearly made a very personal film: he met his second wife in Paris, and the couple lived in Oklahoma before eventually separating.
To the Wonder is unusual in that it contains very little dialogue, which creates an almost dreamlike quality. None of the characters are properly developed, though, and the result is an emotionally unsatisfying experience. Ben Affleck is given little to do other than stare pensively into the distance. Olga Kurylenko spends most of the film twirling. Javier Bardem's Father Quintana feels detached from the rest of the story and Rachel McAdams has little more than an extended cameo.
Certainly the film's strong point is Emmanuel Lubezki's stunning cinematography. Even the biggest detractors of To the Wonder would have to concede that it's a beautiful film.
At its best, To the Wonder evokes the greatness of Malick's previous film, The Tree of Life - but that film had characters you could connect with, so it worked on an emotional level as well as an intellectual one. At its worst, To the Wonder is dull and repetitious. It ends up feeling like a parody of a Malick film, with its self-importance and constant waxing poetic. There's too much style and not enough substance.
Malick's film is concerned with themes of love and religion. The director has clearly made a very personal film: he met his second wife in Paris, and the couple lived in Oklahoma before eventually separating.
To the Wonder is unusual in that it contains very little dialogue, which creates an almost dreamlike quality. None of the characters are properly developed, though, and the result is an emotionally unsatisfying experience. Ben Affleck is given little to do other than stare pensively into the distance. Olga Kurylenko spends most of the film twirling. Javier Bardem's Father Quintana feels detached from the rest of the story and Rachel McAdams has little more than an extended cameo.
Certainly the film's strong point is Emmanuel Lubezki's stunning cinematography. Even the biggest detractors of To the Wonder would have to concede that it's a beautiful film.
At its best, To the Wonder evokes the greatness of Malick's previous film, The Tree of Life - but that film had characters you could connect with, so it worked on an emotional level as well as an intellectual one. At its worst, To the Wonder is dull and repetitious. It ends up feeling like a parody of a Malick film, with its self-importance and constant waxing poetic. There's too much style and not enough substance.