Ok, I really wanted to see this movie because it looked very interesting and the story sounded like a good story:
"Focusing on a family in Waco Texas in 1956. The eldest son witnesses the loss of innocence, and struggles with his parents' conflicting philosophies."
It won the Palm D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Plus, it's got Brad Pitt as Sean Penn's father. Sadly, I only made it through the first half of the film.
The very beginning started off really interesting (I LOVED their house!). A family in Texas in the 1950s living their lives, playing, having fun, then, a letter arrives at the door and it's a notice that one of their sons died. Then we go to the future where we see Sean Penn in another amazing house and he's quiet, withdrawn and depressed. We see him at work and we learn that it's the anniversary of his brother's death. Then shit starts to get real...
All of a sudden it's like the movie has been replaced by an episode of the Planet Earth mini series (which I loved), but there's no talking, no explanation, just loud, Enya-type music. For a good 60 minutes! I had NO idea what was going on. Then came the dinosaurs. Yes, the dinosaurs. At this point, I had to figure out what the HELL was going on, so I Googled the film and, dammit, why didn't I Wikipedia it sooner?! Here is Wikipedia's MUCH more helpful description:
"The film chronicles the origins and meaning of life by way of a middle-aged man's childhood memories of his family living in 1950s Texas, interspersed with imagery of the origins of the universe and the inception of life on Earth."
See what I'm saying? MUCH more helpful. If I would have read this first, I probably would have finished the film because then I would have at least had an idea as to what the hell was going on during the hour long Enya-heavy Planet Earth "imagery". Alas, the film lost me in the "origins of the universe" section, so I just couldn't keep going. And I NEVER don't finish a movie. I usually love the weird, different, quirky, deep movies, but this one just didn't do it for me. Maybe if the description of the movie was actually taken from Wikipedia, then maybe I would have made it.