Considering the amount of time it typically takes for a new film from Terrence Malick to arrive (typically around a decade), the fact that the director is releasing his third film of the decade so far comes as somewhat of a surprise. Malick is an extremely deliberate filmmaker, who fills his films with images of natural beauty and the filmmaker’s own sense of abstract philosophizing. I’d be lying if I said that the films of Terrence Malick fill me with the same wonder and awe that it does many of my colleagues, which is to say that I found the director’s latest film, Knight of Cups, to be more of the same. However, for admirers of Malick, just know that Knight of Cups is much closer to his last film, the critically divisive To the Wonder, than the critical darling The Tree of Life.
Christian Bale stars as Rick, a screenwriter in Los Angeles who lives a life of excess in both women and booze. When Rick isn’t attending opulent parties, he’s driving all throughout Southern California, usually with the latest woman in his life by his side – the rotating romances of Rick are played by Imogen Poots, Natalie Portman, Cate Blanchett, Freida Pinto, Isabel Lucas, and Teresa Palmer; in other words, he’s having a really rough life. Rick is also forced to deal with family issues, from his recovering addict brother Barry (Wes Bentley) to his aging father Joseph (Brian Dennehy). Of course, these are just moments in a larger existential crisis facing Bale’s wandering screenwriter.
Malick doesn’t allow his film to yield to conventional styles of filmmaking in any regard. There’s very little actual dialogue in Knight of Cups; instead we’re given images of people talking with a disembodied voiceover imparting the film’s abstract philosophical musings. While this method may be what draws many people towards Malick, I found it to be painful to sit through as this manner of storytelling is constantly repeated for a solid two hours. Malick also focuses heavily on images of water, birds, and airplanes, implying that Rick is drowning and yearning for freedom. However, this oft-repeated imagery grows as tiresome as the whispered narration that dominates the film.
The cinematography of Knight of Cups is handled by the famed cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, who uses extremely wide angle lenses that give the film a distorted look around the edges of the frame. As with many films that Lubezki works on, his cinematography is the most interesting aspect of the film. Despite the work of Lubezki, Knight of Cups is dominated by Malick’s voice, which depending on your perspective is either a blessing or a curse.
Knight of Cups is undoubtedly the work of Terrence Malick. It’s not a conventional movie in any sense, and contains many of the trademarks that have defined the filmmaker since 1998’s The Thin Red Line. Malick has assembled an impressive roster of A-list talent for his detached tour of Southern California, but the filmmaker’s passions make the film a difficult journey to become immersed in. As someone who’s not a fan of Malick’s films, Knight of Cups was just more of the same – beautiful shots of nature, people walking slowly, and a distant voiceover imparting obtuse wisdom. I even suspect that die-hard fans of Malick will be left cold by Knight of Cups, as it seems that the writer-director behind the work is fairly uncertain of the story he’s crafting and the point he’s trying to make. There’s still no denying that Terrence Malick is one of a kind, but Knight of Cups is probably just for those most devoted to the abstract auteur.
