It was a long movie. It kept me interested for the majority of its time, except for watching the universe expand for about twenty minutes straight. But my interest was also combined with sheer confusion. The flashbacks and flashwards were hard to discern from the "actual movie", for one thing. The mother was also making me extremely angry because she wasn't doing anything about the father! Why are you letting him hit your kids and tear apart the household?!More than once it seemed that he would have been better leaving that staying at home to teach his boys the lessons that he thought we valuable. I was getting a little fed up with that and her constant questions that never seemed to get a clear answer. Maybe there is no clear answer for some of the questions she was asking God, but I was thinking, "at least give us something." Another thing that perplexed me was Sean Penn's character. I think he is the oldest son, but for a long time I also thought that the oldest son had died and gone on to the afterlife. So about halfway through him talking with a colleague over engineering blueprints I realized that he couldn't be dead (I was pretty sure they didn't need blueprints in heaven).
But most of all, I felt like I was choking on symbolism. What did the lights mean? What about the windows that were always shown? Why was every other shot, or so it seemed, looking at the sky through tree branches? There were also a lot of shots of just water, or seashores. And why were the mother's feet always shown getting washed? Not to mention , there were so many awkward hugs between the father and boys. It just seemed like Malick was trying to convey too many themes in one movie, and I don't think symbolism enhances a movie when the viewer can't understand what you're trying to say with your symbols.
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