Terrence Malick’s ‘To the Wonder’: Great sleep aid.

With a cast including Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams and Javier Bardem, as well as being directed by Terrence Malick, To the Wonder looked as if had potential to be a good (read: classy, yet entertaining) night out at the Dundee Contemporary Arts cinema. However, I can’t help thinking that I might have enjoyed myself more at Liquid/the Bingo hall/on the bus home.

The basic plot (and believe me, it is basic) is: boy meets girl. Boy meets girl in Paris, they fall in love, he brings her back to Oklahoma, she gets bored and goes home, he has brief fling with his childhood sweetheart. Repeat. The characters do not endear themselves to you – boy is stoic (inexpressive human-shaped figure), girl is wonderfully whimsical (annoying and indecisive) and sweetheart has a troubled past (excessively emotional). In an almost impressive lack of plot interlinking and strained relevance, Javier Bardem is an unexplained Catholic priest who wanders around in silent melancholy. There was a nice moment between Bardem and the church cleaner about the light of God shining through the stained-glass window, but Malick evidently got fed up of putting interesting scenes in his film after that one.

There are endless (endless) scenes of sunsets and grass, which are beautifully shot and almost make you want to move to Oklahoma… but not much else. The whole thing could have easily been condensed into a pretty 3-minute video montage. Everything looked like an ubiquitous Instagram post: filtered and lens-shifted with light leaks to communicate a greater depth than was actually feasible, given the content.

Even more frustrating are the characters. There is so little dialogue – or interaction – that the actors could have been replaced with anyone. Even if they had been replaced within the duration of the film, I wouldn’t have noticed. Affleck has approximately four lines in total (presumably that means they’re meant to be more meaningful once delivered, but really you’re just surprised he’s capable of speech) and a has job to do with soil testing, neither of which are constructive or conclusive.

In the place of traditional communication through dialogue and actual expression, there is a monotonous voiceover (irregularly in English) which plagues the film, somewhat reminiscent of the generic Grey’s Anatomy applicable-to-anyone-in-any-situation monologue. It has the unfortunate consequence of fatiguing the viewer to the extent that they’ll may feel compelled to catch up on some nap-time in preparation for a 9am tutorial the next day.

To the Wonder is the kind of film that leaves a pause between you and your cinema companion after the lights go up and the room begins to empty (there were five other people in my cinema, perhaps indicatively). Thankfully, I was with good enough friends that we were able to honestly discuss how boring, unsatisfying and terrible we found the film. I can’t imagine having to make awkward critical-appreciation small-talk with a date or some acquaintances about how ‘the delicate cinematography in an effect conveyed the fractured, fluid and fleeting nature of love’.

Don’t see it.