by, Cameron Lui

Critics have not been very fond of the premier booed “The Sea of Trees,” directed by the talented Gus Van Sant. 

Mathew McConaughey and Naomi Watts did not deserve the criticism they received during the premier. While many critics have called this one of the worst recent films by McConaughey, I thought he turned out yet another consistently passionate performance. 

What made the movie so insightful was how right they got the dark side of relationships. It was beautiful how one minor incident would patiently develop into an overblown argument. The simply written dialog made the relationship that much more relatable. For example they constantly used lines like “give me one example,” or “we said we wouldn’t bring that up,” during arguments which are phrases we’ve all been frustrated with at some point. 

The way Gus Van Sant delivered text book marital issues worked really well with the characters development. The audience learns about the characters backstory and really feel the pain of a broken marriage, but as the film goes on they learn how and why the love still exists.  

Beyond the marital issues, the mythology of the movie was what I believe either turned people on or off to the movie. For me, I loved how the ending wrapped up all of the loose ends. I also loved how they examined the relationship between science and spirit and how they don’t necessarily need to be oppositions. While, McConaughey’s character was stubborn enough to deny even giving the mythology of the forest a chance, it seemed that later the point was that both can exist in this world.

Overall, the movie was emotional and very well shot. It is a pretty slow movie and seemed to lose a few people in the audience but if you love good writing and beautiful cinematography then this movie is for you.