Meryl as Margaret

Check out this trailer from the forthcoming Margaret Thatcher biopic. I swear, there is no one better than Meryl.

The Tree of Life: A Mixed Bag

There are moments during Terrance Malick's "The Tree of Life" when an editor's hard hand would be quite welcome. Long stretches where the principal actors in this drama make no appearance. There are volcanoes and even two dinosaurs. And the point of this meandering?Malick's attempt at contemplating the Divine? Our connection to a planet and universe that is in constant states of change, of evolution? Who the hell cares. The truth is if this 40-minute stretch of nothing (God, it felt longer) were removed, "The Tree of Life" would be a much better film.

I suppose every artist struggles with how to fully indulge in his craft while keeping it accessible. For what good is art if people walk away from the viewing or the reading shaking their heads because the only thing they've witnessed is something that comes across as an artist engaged in the act of auto-fellatio?

Don't get me wrong: there are moments of genius in "The Tree of Life." Jessica Chastain and Bratt Pitt are a wonderfully bruised Mr. and Mrs. O'Brien. Most of what she says is expressed in her visage, open and raw. He does most of his talking in hard barks or with his hands, as when he's lunging across the table in a rage to quiet an insulate child. The film, however, belongs to Hunter McCracken, who plays Young Jack (Sean Penn, not doing much in this movie, is Adult Jack).

When the camera swoops into the interior lives of the O'Briens, "The Tree of Life" is hauntingly brilliant, full of truth and vigor. But then Malick too often moves away from the people in favor of silly CGI graphics and screen shots that look like they were taken out of "Nature" or "National Geographic."