From Terrence Malick, the acclaimed director of such films as Badlands, Days of Heaven, and The Thin Red Line, The Tree of Life is the impressionistic story of a Mid-western family in the 1950s. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father (Brad Pitt). Jack (played as an adult by Sean Penn) finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith. Through Malick’s signature imagery, we see how both brute nature and spiritual grace shape not only our lives as individuals and families, but all life...

Alexandre Desplat's score for The Tree of Life has its moments but it's mainly atmospheric music that sits in the background of the film to add a little extra emotion. There's very little here that will make you sit up and take notice when listened to in isolation. But then this could be down to the way that Malick likes to work. Apparently Desplat has revealed that he was asked to start work on the score before the movie was edited: "During several months I dreamed of skies, rivers, emergence of life, tenderness of brotherhood, father and son relationship, loving mothers, rising suns."

Sounds like all the ingredients for a Disney movie. However, as the score progresses you get sucked into Desplat's journey... and you know what? It's not half bad. Sure it's rather bland for the most part, but that heightens the interesting segments when they appear.

There's plenty of material here, the running time for the album is 01 hr, 01 min, 10 sec, but it's probably the sort of music you'd enjoy listening to while on a summer walk in the woods.

On another note, there's some slight problems with the conversion of the digital files. I checked both the AIFF and MP3 files we received and there's at least one track where the file seems to have been corrupted. It's only for a second, but once you know it's there it's very annoying.

Sadly, while it does have its moments, this is another functional album from Desplat which offers very little that is memorable.

5

Darren Rea