The title of the film is "The Tree of Life", an important term in the biblical scripture, and the film is an allegorical reflection and interpretation of the term by the film-maker. Thus, any proper review of the film should at least give serious theological treatment to its theme and content.
As a non-religious person brought up in a Communist country, but not yet made to believe that all religions are opium to the people, I believe it is most appropriate for me not to dabble or speculate on the religious faiths of others, out of basic human decency and respect. As I am not a scholar on Christianity, or any other religion, I believe what I have to say might lead more to the misunderstanding than to the comprehension of the film-maker's intentions.
Nonetheless, as a member of the audience, I find the film curiously constructed, interrupting a religiously allegorical plot with a lengthy digital reconstruction of the birth of the universe and the beginning of the life on earth according to the most up-to-date scientific discoveries, which makes me wonder as to the strictness of the film-maker's adherence to the biblical scripture as well as the liberty the film-maker takes in his personal interpretation of it.
I think it is important for the audience to know that Christianity, though one of the most prevalent religions nowadays, was hardly prosperous at the time of its creation, nor one of the major religion at the time, nor the first faith discovered by man. The Old Testament is a lot older than the New Testament, and is based on the Jewish faith. But the Jews were a bullied minor tribe in their time. There were far larger kingdoms and empires of more ancient civilisations before and at the time of the Jews. The religions of the Egyptians and the Babylonians preceded that of the small Semitic tribe by millennia and might have spread to more peoples and lands and wielded far greater influences. And these influences on the biblical scripture could be inscrutably foundational,which can be tested by the fact that though the Islamic scripture arose later than the Christian scripture, it considers the Christian faith part of a greater religious tradition of the arid region east to the Mediterranean.
The film-maker invokes the biblical term "the tree of life ", but does not quote more from the Book. Other than a brief sermon, the film makes no more mention of the scripture. My guess is that the film intends to make its religious allegory more universal than Christianity or mere religion but to also include the meta-physical and the scientific. In other words, in my view, the film intends to weave its own version of the meaning of life, based on religious underpinnings.
I think what could elucidate more of what the film tries to impart by its poetic and allegorical use of camera is the scripture itself other than my often off-the-mark musings. So I quote (Genesis, NIV, 1984 ):
Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that had done.
This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created.
When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens --- and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground --- the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground --- trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. The name of the second river is the Gihon ; it winds through the entire land of Cush. The name of the third river is the Tigris; it tuns along the east side of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, 'You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.'
The Lord God said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.'
Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field.
But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
the man said,
'This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called "woman,"
for she was taken out of man.'
For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, 'Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?'
The woman said to the serpent, 'We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'
'You will not surely die,' the serpent said to the woman. 'For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, 'Where are you?'
He answered, 'I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.'
And he said, 'Who told you in that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?'
The man said, 'The woman you put here with me --- she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.'
Then the Lord God said to the woman, 'What is this you have done?'
The woman said, 'The serpent deceived me, and I ate.'
So the Lord God said to the serpent, 'Because you have done this,
'Cursed are you above all the
livestock and all the wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.'
To the woman he said,
'I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing;
with pain you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.'
To Adam he said, 'Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,'
'Cursed is the ground because of you;
Through painful toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.'
Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the Lord God said, 'The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.' So the Lord God banished him from the the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life."
This biblical account of the Garden of Eden and human beings' loss of it mirrors closely to the emotions and the lives of the characters in the film, and not until the last scene, after the son leaves behind all his anxieties in money-making and makes peace with his childhood traumas left by his father which have been driving his life, was the tension released, and he is allowed entrance into the halcyon realm where his loving mother in his childhood appears again to "give him away" so that the tree of life, though forbidden, still endows life to a new generation.
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