Two films tonight, the first of which I’d been looking forward to, that being The Tree of Life, the new American film from Terrence Malick. Majestic and wonderful are both words to start me off. Seemed sort of like Reggio meets 2001 though without the cryptic confusion. The central focus was a man, Jack, revisiting his life growing up in the 1950s while making sense of his current world I s’pose; interwoven with scenes of orchestrated creation and evolution of life. From that, I perceived the 1950s family as but a small dot in the history of all. That sort of ties in with where Jack is at in the now, trying to find his way. Even within the family times, time itself jumped around, not being a chronological advancement, rather, capturing a sense of emotion and feeling exploring around events. It was glorious to sit there and watch the film unfold.

Second film of the evening was a bit of light relief from the US, with Win Win, directed by Tom McCarthy. I like Paul Giamatti’s acting and he doesn’t disappoint here bringing a sympathetic handling to his role as a struggling lawyer tempted to do something dodgy to make ends meet. This could have been a standard by the numbers sort of comedy but it did have a bit of heart to it, that was gently handled. All loose ends are tied up of course but in a manner that was comfortable and flowed out from the film.