By The Tree Of Life was an existential epic, considering the nature of all creation, the balance between the empathy of divine grace and the cruelty of natural selection, and also dinosaurs. Unfortunately, despite the gorgeous cinematography and aforementioned dinosaurs, it was all too ponderous for its own good and uniformly loathed by our reviewers. Clearly worried about attracting Flixist’s ire, Malick will be releasing a second movie this year, an unprecedented feat for a director whose production schedules are usually slightly longer than it takes the average universe to be born and collapse into an incomprehensible cosmic metaphor. Previously known as The Burial, the Ben Affleck / Rachel McAdams-starring picture will now be rated-R and retitled To The Wonder, coming with this synopsis:
It concerns a philanderer (Affleck) who, feeling at loose ends, travels to Paris, where he enters a hot-and-heavy affair with a European woman (Olga Kurylenko). Said Lothario returns home to Oklahoma, where he marries the European woman (in part for visa reasons). When the relationship flounders, he rekindles a romance with a hometown girl (McAdams) with whom he’s had a long history.
Javier Bardem will also feature, once he’s finished trying to kill James Bond. Expect much sighing and staring at nothing in particular.
[via Collider]