An intensely personal film by Terrence Malick ("The Tree of Life," "The Thin Red Line"), "To the Wonder" explores the lives and loves of four people, to the near complete exclusion of everyone else. The films revels in solitude and celebrates seclusion with what seems like voluptuous ardor.
France and Oklahoma are the primary seclusion locations — not just visually arresting backdrops (the camera work by Emmanuel Lubezki is stunning and worth the ticket price alone) but vast cocoons that envelop and confine the characters in flawless tableaux of breathtaking beauty. It's impossible to forget the scene with Jane (Rachel McAdams) in a floral print dress, her back to the camera as her silhouette seems to melt into a golden field, wheat stalks waving in the wind like magic wands.
"To the Wonder" may come off at times as an exercise in artistic indulgence: Clearly Malick had an agenda that needed sorting and uses the film for this purpose. He doesn't make it seem like self-indulgence though; I found that the sense of privilege in sharing in the experience ultimately overrode most of my negative reactions. Still, it requires some patience to get into the wonders at work; the film leaves so many stones unturned and puzzle pieces missing. Asking "Why?" of almost any scene is futile. Apparently Malick feels that we're along for the ride, and if there's any discomfort along the way, we should just ignore it. Fair enough, since the landscape unfolding before our eyes is ultimately more important than mere plot logistics.