The funny thing about Terrence Malick’s upcoming film The Tree of Life is that I can’t help but get the impression that only a very small number of people out there actually care about seeing it. Even within that small number I feel as if most of the people couldn’t really care less, and only attempt to seem interested because such a big deal is being made about it.
For as much of a fuss as The Tree of Life has caused over the last few years you would think we’d be looking at a film that’s ready to bust down the box-office. But of Malick’s films, The Thin Red Line is his highest grossing at only $36.4 million, The New World is next at $12.7 million and Days of Heaven comes in at $3.4m. It’s not like his films light the box-office on fire. Box-office may not speak to a film’s quality, but it certainly speaks to how many people are interested in seeing it.
Of course, I guess I should be happy to see a growing contingent of online readers and writers taking interest in a film that doesn’t involve superheroes. We may finally have a Malick film that can actually do some serious business at the box-office and get people interested in seeing his earlier work… especially since two of them are available as part of Criterion’s Blu-ray collection.
As for today’s news, we have a new poster for the film that will be hitting UK theaters on May 4th, followed by a slot at Cannes about a week later and then hitting domestic theaters on May 27. Personally I can’t wait to be one of the first to see this one at Cannes, it feels like it will be something special.
