To the Wonder

Director: Terrence Malick Terrence Malick

Overview

To the Wonder, Terrence Malick's poetic examination of man's relationships, stars Ben Affleck as an American who falls in love with a woman (Olga Kurylenko) in Paris. He marries her and she moves with him and her daughter to the U.S. When their union falters, he considers becoming involved with an old girlfriend Rachel McAdams. Meanwhile, a priest Javier Bardem contemplates the relationship between God and love. To the Wonder screened at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival.

Product Details

Release Date:	08/06/2013
UPC:	0876964005722
Original Release:	2012
Rating:	R
Source:	Magnolia Home Ent
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:53:00
Sales rank:	32,793

Special Features

The making of To The Wonder; The actors' experience; The ballet; Local flavor; Theatrical trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Ben Affleck	Neil
Olga Kurylenko	Marina
Rachel McAdams	Jane
Javier Bardem	Father Quintana
Greg Elliot	Actor
Tatiana Chiline	Actor
Romina Mondello	Actor
Tony O'Gans	Actor
Charles Baker	Actor
Marshall Bell	Actor
Casey Williams	Actor
Jack Hines	Actor
Paris Always	Actor
Samaria Folks	Actor
Jamie Conner	Actor
Francis Gardner	Actor
Michael Bumpus	Actor
Lois Boston	Actor
Danyeil Inman	Actor
Bobby Davis Horsley	Actor
Wigi Black	Actor
Ashley L. Clark	Actor
Terry York	Actor
Darryl Cox	Actor
William Riddle	Actor
Russell Vaclaw	Actor
Kenneth Woodhams	Actor
Amy Christiansen	Actor,Actor
Emma Johnson	Actor
Bruce Peabody	Actor
Tamar Baruch	Actor
Michael Anderson	Actor
Darren Patnode	Actor
Hanan Townsend	Composer
Hanan Townshend	Composer

Technical Credits

Terrence Malick

Terrence Malick	Director,Screenwriter
Nicolas Gonda	Producer
Sarah Green	Producer
Bill Pohlad	Producer
Joe Krigsfeld	Executive Producer,Executive Producer,Executive Producer
Glen Basner	Executive Producer,Producer
Erik Aadahl	Sound/Sound Designer,Sound Effects
Joerg Widmer	Camera Operator
Robin Hudson	Casting
Chris Freihofer	Casting
Michel Ferry	Production Manager
Jose Antonio Garcia	Sound Mixer
Ethan Andrus	Sound Mixer
Daniel Lanois	Sound Effects
John Joseph Thomas	Sound Effects
Adam Kopald	Sound Effects
Craig Berkey	Sound Effects
Sarah Bourgeois	Sound Effects

Editorial Reviews

With his award-winning The Tree of Life, director Terrence Malick pretty much threw off any remaining chains of conventional narrative and storytelling. His art evolved to a place of nearly pure montage, a place where visual poetry (the rhythm of editing, the repetition of imagery, the lighting, the camera movements, and the color) meant more than the actors or the characters or the script. While The Tree of Life wrestled with the weighty topics of love, death, and God, his follow-up, To the Wonder, focuses solely on love -- the subject matter for so much classical poetry -- and solidifies his current style. Ben Affleck plays Neil, an American who falls in love with a French single mother named Marina (Olga Kurylenko) during a trip overseas. The couple and her young daughter move to his home in Oklahoma, where Marina adjusts to her new life and befriends a local priest (Javier Bardem) who is struggling with his faith. But their idyllic life starts to fray, and eventually Neil makes contact with an old lover (Rachel McAdams). While that setup implies a conventional romantic drama, Malick uses this familiar plot as a throughline for a nonstop wash of images and sound that's devoid of conventional scene structure. For example, though he plays the lead character, we hear Affleck speak primarily in voice-over -- it's possible we never see him say more than three lines of dialogue in the whole film. His words provide part of the soundtrack for the images that showcase the beginning of his relationship with Marina, the camera spinning and tilting in exuberance -- and occasionally stopping to notice how much more beautiful the world looks when we think we've found our soul mate. This approach to the material is so quintessentially late-period Malick that naysayers will accuse the man of parodying himself. In truth, he's come up with his purest vision -- and his most streamlined work since Badlands. There is no fat on the movie, just consistent attempts to get viewers to feel joy, pain, guilt, jealousy, and all the other roiling emotions triggered by love. The title is apt, for such strong feelings are a wonder to us, and it's a wonder that any picture would not just try to, but quite often succeed at, pulling off something so ambitious. Although it's hard for actors to stand out in a Malick movie, Bardem is the perfect performer for the visual-minded director's approach to filmmaking. With the exception of Daniel Day-Lewis, it's hard to name an actor with as much screen charisma as Bardem, and though his role is certainly small, he gives his haunted priest such sorrowful depth, and such formidable presence, that we never forget that Malick is concerned with types of love far greater than the romantic variety. For those who find Malick pretentious and dull, there's nothing in To the Wonder that will dissuade them. But for those who are seduced by his idiosyncratic rhythms, his boundless quest for photographic beauty, and his grand attempts to tackle the core themes of humanity, To the Wonder is a movie to treasure.