Melded together by director Terrence Malick from bits of images, memories, and heart-cries, The Tree of Life envelopes us in one man's spiritual journey. Jack, played in adulthood by Sean Penn, ruminates on the mysteries of life and loss on the anniversary of his brother's death. The result is a fragmented but beautiful kaleidoscope of a film that is closer to a prayer set to music than to a story.
If there is one thing Mel Gibson understands, it is damnation. The once-lauded actor was able to bring the concept to life in The Passion of the Christ, before the scandals that knocked him from his Hollywood throne and moral pulpit. In The Beaver, directed by and co-starring Jodie Foster, Gibson portrays a man crippled at first by regret and depression, then by the domination of a strange creature that was to be his salvation.
In the wake of the success of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, ABC is set to try another show highlighting goodness and sacrifice. The American version of the British show Secret Millionaire, in which the wealthy go undercover in poor neighborhoods to find worthy causes on which to bestow their money, premiered March 6.
Persecution | Two collections of short fiction depict communist absurdities in China and North Korea
