Wonder land
In theaters now: Django Unchained, Les Miserables
New on Blu-ray: The Words
Lost in the shuffle of the pre-Christmas holiday rush was the release late last week of the first trailer for enigmatic director Terrence Malick’s latest drama To the Wonder. The clip, starring Ben Affleck, Olga Kurylenko and Rachel McAdams feels almost profanely romantic and emotionally tragic with a sweeping score of strings vibrating just on the cautious side of danger.
“To love is to run the risk of failure, betrayal,” Javier Bardem’s priestly character intones as the narrator of a stream of images reveling in physical affection and the exploration of worlds both natural—enveloping wheat fields and sea shores—and constructed—soaring contemporary architecture and houses of religious worship.
The film, allegedly focusing on a young couple and their struggles to remain faithful and understand fully their bond as husband and wife, follows hot on the heels of Malick’s gorgeous and critically-acclaimed, if a bit overly academic 2011 picture, Tree of Life. This marks the first time in his career that the Austin-based filmmaker has released movies in successive years. Based on the trailer, To the Wonder would appear to be more focused and, if only slightly, more plot driven than its immediate predecessor.
Kurylenko looks to be the breakout star of the picture—word is that Affleck and McAdams’ roles have been trimmed down in the editing room. The former Bond girl gave an extensive interview about the mysterious project to IndieWire in which she calls To the Wonder “deep and heartbreaking.” Check that out here.
To the Wonder arrives in theaters April 12. View the trailer below:
