The Tree of Life

Let me just start off by saying, I'm amazed that I was able to sit through this entire movie since it seemed to be a 2 hr and 11 minute long screen saver. Don't get me wrong, some of the cinematography was very beautiful, but I couldn't help but feel as though I was staring at a computer screen and at some moments not sure exactly what I was looking at. There is a sequence of the creation of the earth and the first life on the planet that evolves in dinosaurs while classical music plays in the background. I was oddly reminded of the movement in Fantasia when the dinosaurs go extinct. The music, which I would normally find beautiful, added an element of chaos to the movie that did not match the flow of action. The constant whispering of the characters was a little bit creepy and remained vague throughout the entire film. The actors played their characters down to a T, but the flow of the movie and the lack of communication couldn't be helped. As the en credits began the only thing I could say was, "Really?"

The Debt

A remake of the 2007 Israeli film directed by Assaf Bernstein. This movie is filmed with many flashback sequences that retell the story of three Mossad Intelligence agents sent into Germany to kidnap a surgeon who performed horrible experiments on Jews during WWII. The plan is to smuggle him out of Germany and into Isreal so he can finally be put on trial for his heinous crimes, but somewhere between timing and human emotion, the plan goes awry. Although this is a political film, the three character development is a huge part of the film. It was quite disappointing when the three agents lost their captive, but the biggest disappointment of the film was the horrible damage caused to all three of the agents' lives due to their actions. It's one of those films that makes you want to rewind it back to the beginning and on watching it a second time, hope that the characters make the decisions that they should have all along, but they never do. The attraction and emotions between Jessica Chastain's character and Sam Worthington's were more than believable, which made this movie mildly depressing to watch. I really enjoyed this film for several different reasons, but mostly because of its emphasis on the past and the inability to go back in time to change events that we wish we could.