when i first watched terrance malick's epic film, i was watching it with my parents and we didn't know quite what to make of it. everyone agreed that the acting was fantastic and that it was a beautifully-filmed piece of work with wonderful effects and some very interesting ideas to it, but there was an understanding of malick's message that we didn't get due to the film's challenging nature. i knew that i liked it but i needed to understand why. on a second watching i began to understand the film more and i think what malick did was a truly impressive piece of film-making. malick has a very distinctive voice and he uses it in powerful ways, but this is not a movie for everyone. many have called this pretentious and i can see why, but i consider it to be far from that. a pretentious film wants to be smart but fails at it. richard kelly is a great example of that; his films try to be exceedingly clever and brilliant but it's all a house of cards that fall apart if you look closely at all. the tree of life is very intelligent and it tackles some incredibly deep topics, including those of religion, morality, families, love and more. malick's vision is beautifully realized, not only in the deliberate pacing and wonderful camera work but in the performances by brad pitt, jessica chastain, the young hunter mccracken, sean penn and the rest of the cast. this is certainly not a movie for everyone and the pace and malick's visual choices will frustrate some, but i walked away from it feeling very much enriched.