MPAA Rated – R
It’s 1:53 Long
A Review by:
– The Dude on the Right
| To The Wonder Movie Stats & Links |
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| Starring: | Ben Afleck, Olga Kurylenko, Rachel McAdams, Javier Bardem |
| MPAA Rated: | R |
| Released By: | Magnolia Home Entertainment |
| Release Date: | August 6, 2013 |
| Kiddie Movie: | They’d be bored. Send them to bed. |
| Date Movie: | They’d also be bored. Send them to bed. |
| Gratuitous Sex: | It’s got some. |
| Gratuitous Violence: | Neil and Marina get in some fights. |
| Action: | Nope. |
| Laughs: | Nope. |
| Memorable Scene: | Only memorable because there was so much of it: The frolicking. |
| Memorable Quote: | None. |
| Directed By: | Terrence Malick |
| On the Blu-Ray: | You get some “Making of…”, Actors stuff, dancing stuff, and some other extras. |
As I was watching “To The Wonder,” all I could keep thinking was that had Neil (Ben Affleck) just bought some furniture for his house, maybe he wouldn’t have had all of the problems with his new love, Marina (Olga Kurylenko). Okay, I was also trying to think of something nice to say about the film.
I guess I’ll start with the story…
For “To The Wonder” we get Neil. He’s in France and meets a beautiful woman, Marina, and her daughter. They fall in love, and what does Marina do? Of course she pulls up stakes and moves to Oklahoma. Yes, the wonders of Paris to Oklahoma. Does anyone actually think the couple would have a chance at succeeding? As the movie plays out we get to see a happy couple, a couple who isn’t so happy, a happy couple, a couple who isn’t so happy, a dude going to work and testing soil or something, a couple who isn’t so happy, and a priest who seems confused. Oh, yea, did I mention there is also a priest, Father Quintana (Javier Bardem), who seems to have lost his faith and is somehow part of the movie, but doesn’t seem to play that big a role?
Yes, the movie is about love and all of its factors, but it’s also a movie that seems to show there is no chance at love, at least for the two main characters, and it’s an artsy film about love, with a lot of Marina frolicking through the fields of Oklahoma, a lot of Marina dancing around in ballet moves, even Rachel McAdams as Jane, Neil’s old girlfriend, coming into the picture and she’s spinning and frolicking. All along it also seems like a great role for Ben Affleck as he seemed to have relatively few lines to learn with most of the commentary by Marina in French (Yup, that means you’ll also spend a lot of the movie reading it), as well as Father Quintana commentarying in Spanish (again, more reading for you, the viewer).
Yes, there are people who will like this movie, just not me, and definitely not my wife as, when it ended, she pretty much wanted to give it zero stars for wasting her time. Me, I’m not so critical, seeing some of the artsy ways the movie was working, but even for me, and I can normally try to appreciate an art-house type of film, even this one had me saying things like “Again with the dancing,” and while looking at the interior of Neil’s place wondering why he just doesn’t let Marina do some shopping for some furniture. There are other, better movies about love, I would give this one about 2 stars, but I’ll average things with my wife and end up with 1 star out of 5 for “To The Wonder.” I guess the key if you will like the movie is knowing what to expect, so if you expect frolicking, talking, and reading (unless you understand French and Spanish), you might like it, but for most everyone else you might just wonder how Ben Affleck became involved.
That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!