“I can feel the warmth of the light, brother. That’s spiritual. I’m feeling more than the natural light, that’s spiritual.” So says the charismatic janitor as he places his hands on the stained glass windows of the church in Terrence Malick’s To the Wonder. This small scene is seemingly insignificant, but proves to be critical in interpreting the present film as well as Malick’s body of work. Since Malick’s collaboration with cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, in The New World, The Tree of Life, and now To the Wonder, the long-standing rule has been to only use natural light as much as possible. The line of dialogue above opens a door into Malick’s mind, and in some way reveals one intention of his as a filmmaker. He wants his viewers to experience the warmth of the spiritual light. Malick’s use of natural light is much more than natural; it’s spiritual.
To deeply study and understand the work of Malick one must fully explore Christian theology. Critics of Malick explore the philosophical avenue that his films do present, but much academic writing is lacking a thorough religious examination of his films. For as much a part as religion plays in his films, this is a shame. There are many frameworks to analyze and critique the films of Malick, but the one employed here will be viewing To the Wonder through theological and religious ideals, specifically Christian. Critics of Malick may have gotten away with writing The Tree of Life off as “vague spirituality”, but To the Wonder proves to be overtly Christian.
To the Wonder touches on ideas of alienation, the nature of love, the vanity of life itself, but overwhelmingly it presents the audience with an observation on the war between the spirit and the flesh.
Many critics have praised the film’s rapturous opening at Mont St. Michel (the wonder) and noted how it displays Neil and Marina’s transcendent-like love. This however, is a misreading of the film’s beginning. The film opens with quiet, ominous and eerie music. Through Marina’s voiceover of a flashback on the train to Mont St. Michel, viewers know that something will go sour in Marina and Neil’s relationship. She says, “Newborn. I open my eyes. I melt. Into the eternal light.” The audience doesn’t know what has happened yet, but from the very beginning they know that they are now watching the story of Marina’s fall from grace and rebirth told through her perspective. Marina then says, “You brought me out of the shadows. Lifted me from the ground.” The “you” she is speaking to is ambiguous here, but it cannot be Neil. Logically, she cannot be speaking to Neil because this narration is being spoken after everything that has occurred with Neil.
To deeply study and understand the work of Malick one must fully explore Christian theology. Critics of Malick explore the philosophical avenue that his films do present, but much academic writing is lacking a thorough religious examination of his films. For as much a part as religion plays in his films, this is a shame. There are many frameworks to analyze and critique the films of Malick, but the one employed here will be viewing To the Wonder through theological and religious ideals, specifically Christian. Critics of Malick may have gotten away with writing The Tree of Life off as “vague spirituality”, but To the Wonder proves to be overtly Christian.
To the Wonder touches on ideas of alienation, the nature of love, the vanity of life itself, but overwhelmingly it presents the audience with an observation on the war between the spirit and the flesh.
Many critics have praised the film’s rapturous opening at Mont St. Michel (the wonder) and noted how it displays Neil and Marina’s transcendent-like love. This however, is a misreading of the film’s beginning. The film opens with quiet, ominous and eerie music. Through Marina’s voiceover of a flashback on the train to Mont St. Michel, viewers know that something will go sour in Marina and Neil’s relationship. She says, “Newborn. I open my eyes. I melt. Into the eternal light.” The audience doesn’t know what has happened yet, but from the very beginning they know that they are now watching the story of Marina’s fall from grace and rebirth told through her perspective. Marina then says, “You brought me out of the shadows. Lifted me from the ground.” The “you” she is speaking to is ambiguous here, but it cannot be Neil. Logically, she cannot be speaking to Neil because this narration is being spoken after everything that has occurred with Neil.
Later we learn that Marina had a child at the age of 17, was left alone and was even denied the Holy Sacraments because of this. She is in a destitute state. She sits in the ashes of her previous relationship and seeking fulfillment, she is drawn to Neil. She is full of so much love for him, but the feelings are not reciprocated. Maybe he has the same love for her, but Neil is not an expressive man, if anything he is oppressive, and his silence causes contention in their relationship. Marina so longs to be one with him. She says, “Love makes us one. One. Two. One. I in you, and you in me.” This of course a reference to the Genesis account of the creation of man and woman: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 3:24). Later in the film, a priest who marries Neil and Marina says, “God gave us marriage as a holy mystery in which man and woman are joined together and become one.” This longing for oneness is juxtaposed with the dysfunction of Neil and Marina’s relationship that ensues. Here, Malick is quietly alluding to the fact that there is a love which neither party knows or experiences, and if they never obtain this love there will never be that sense of wholeness or oneness. Jesus’ words to his disciples at the last supper provide insight to Marina’s situation. Jesus said, “’In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. […] Abide in me and I in you. […] Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit” (John 14:20, 15:4-5). There is something about her relationship to Neil that will always be lacking and never unified if she doesn’t come to understand this abiding love that Christ has to offer.
Shortly after Marina has moved to Oklahoma to live with Neil she speaks again out of the overflow of her heart: “What is this love that loves us? Comes from nowhere. From all around.” That is said over a few quiet shots of flowing water. If she is able to grasp where this love comes from she will be swept away in its current. Another quiet allusion to Jesus’ words in John 7:38, “‘Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”’” After Marina expresses her feelings, even her daughter Tatiana tells her, “There’s something missing.” She knows something is lacking in the relationship with her mother and Neil. Immediately after Tatiana says something is missing, we cut to a scene with Father Quintana addressing his congregation. He says, “There is love that has its source that is like a stream that goes dry when rain no longer feeds it. But there is love that is like a stream coming up from the earth. The first is human love the second is divine love that has its source from above.” Malick is showing his audience that Neil and Marina’s hypersexual relationship is lacking of a love that will bring unity and peace to their lives. He provides an answer to the alternative through what Father Quintana has said.
The depiction of Neil and Marina making love in the earlier scenes of the movie are striking and somewhat strange. It isn’t violent, but it is full of passion. There is fierceness there, an animal-like sense of movement. Neil wraps a thin veil around Marina’s neck and face. He pulls her legs towards him as she crawls on the ground. There is emphasis on her strained neck. Afterwards she lies on the floor with tears in her eyes. Is this it? Is she giving herself to him this easily? And immediately after this we cut to images of rides at a carnival going round and round. The idea that the scene is at a carnival makes it all the more menacing. It’s showing the cyclical nature of sin. Marina has been in a previous relationship that left her empty and destitute, and round and round she goes to another man who isn’t providing for her the love that she needs. “Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly” (Proverbs 26:11). Later, we will see Marina engage in an affair that she even knew she didn’t want.
After the film’s first act, another woman named Jane enters the story. She is a woman who Neil knew from his childhood and is back in town while Marina has returned to live in Paris. Jane is in a similar place as Marina. She had a previous relationship that left her destitute and with a child, who tragically was lost. She wants to be vulnerable with Neil and there is a beautiful moment when she and Neil are in the midst of wild buffalo. It’s a moment of tranquility and vulnerability in the midst of such force and violent power. It’s very much a mirror into her situation with Neil.
The depiction of Neil and Marina making love in the earlier scenes of the movie are striking and somewhat strange. It isn’t violent, but it is full of passion. There is fierceness there, an animal-like sense of movement. Neil wraps a thin veil around Marina’s neck and face. He pulls her legs towards him as she crawls on the ground. There is emphasis on her strained neck. Afterwards she lies on the floor with tears in her eyes. Is this it? Is she giving herself to him this easily? And immediately after this we cut to images of rides at a carnival going round and round. The idea that the scene is at a carnival makes it all the more menacing. It’s showing the cyclical nature of sin. Marina has been in a previous relationship that left her empty and destitute, and round and round she goes to another man who isn’t providing for her the love that she needs. “Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly” (Proverbs 26:11). Later, we will see Marina engage in an affair that she even knew she didn’t want.
After the film’s first act, another woman named Jane enters the story. She is a woman who Neil knew from his childhood and is back in town while Marina has returned to live in Paris. Jane is in a similar place as Marina. She had a previous relationship that left her destitute and with a child, who tragically was lost. She wants to be vulnerable with Neil and there is a beautiful moment when she and Neil are in the midst of wild buffalo. It’s a moment of tranquility and vulnerability in the midst of such force and violent power. It’s very much a mirror into her situation with Neil.
Jane informs Neil that she isn’t here to play games. She says, “Do you know what you want? I can’t afford to make mistakes.” She feels stripped bare. Later she walks through the mysterious dark house with an internal voice telling her to “walk away.” A beacon of light guides her upstairs and she exits the story.
The final act explores the ways in which we can “awaken the divine love which sleeps in each man, each woman.” Father Quintana makes it his aim to walk the streets amid the poor and broken to provide them the life of the gospel even though he is experiencing a spiritual drought. The third act also marks a turning point in Neil and Marina’s relationship. It is after winter and the new plants and buds of spring are coming to life. There is a short scene where Marina “trust-falls” into Neil’s arms again and again. They are building their relationship anew. There is a love scene that majorly contrasts with what was previously seen. This time their love is tender, delicate and even sensual. It isn’t animal-like; it is graceful. It is vulnerable. This however, does not last.
Marina then says, “What do we do? Where are we when we’re there?” There is something about the love that each of them know that is fleeting. In this time of doubt, a stranger is introduced to Marina. The seed of adultery is planted in her mind and it germinates in the new spring soil. During this time Marina speaks with her Italian friend who offers her self-liberating rhetoric in order to break free from the chains of this world. According to her friend, “I am my own experiment.” This doesn’t resonate with Marina. Something still is lacking. She cannot find freedom in herself. It has to come from something outside of her.
In a closing monologue, Marina makes an appeal to God and describes the tension in her heart: “My God, what a cruel war. I find two women inside me. One full of love for you. The other pulls me down towards the earth.” As she speaks the visuals are of a man fishing on a pond. The last image seen is a fishing lure hanging right under the surface of the water. James 1:14-15 says, “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” Immediately after the shot of the fishing lure, Marina meets the stranger from before and commits adultery with him in a motel room.
Malick is showing Marina’s war with sin. He is showing the struggle between life in the spirit and life in the flesh that Paul describes in Romans 8:5-10: “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law, indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” She emerges from the dark motel room into the light of day. Her life in the flesh is exposed. As she was in the hotel room with the stranger there was a shot of her hand covering the sun in the sky. She was trying to escape the exposure of the light. Earlier in the film a prisoner sits in jail with the light shining on his face and says, “That sun is just killing me—right in my eyes.” The light is more than just natural; it’s spiritual. Marina tries to hide her sinful actions, and even the prisoner feels the conviction of his sin when it is exposed in the light of truth.
Marina then says, “What do we do? Where are we when we’re there?” There is something about the love that each of them know that is fleeting. In this time of doubt, a stranger is introduced to Marina. The seed of adultery is planted in her mind and it germinates in the new spring soil. During this time Marina speaks with her Italian friend who offers her self-liberating rhetoric in order to break free from the chains of this world. According to her friend, “I am my own experiment.” This doesn’t resonate with Marina. Something still is lacking. She cannot find freedom in herself. It has to come from something outside of her.
In a closing monologue, Marina makes an appeal to God and describes the tension in her heart: “My God, what a cruel war. I find two women inside me. One full of love for you. The other pulls me down towards the earth.” As she speaks the visuals are of a man fishing on a pond. The last image seen is a fishing lure hanging right under the surface of the water. James 1:14-15 says, “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” Immediately after the shot of the fishing lure, Marina meets the stranger from before and commits adultery with him in a motel room.
Malick is showing Marina’s war with sin. He is showing the struggle between life in the spirit and life in the flesh that Paul describes in Romans 8:5-10: “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law, indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” She emerges from the dark motel room into the light of day. Her life in the flesh is exposed. As she was in the hotel room with the stranger there was a shot of her hand covering the sun in the sky. She was trying to escape the exposure of the light. Earlier in the film a prisoner sits in jail with the light shining on his face and says, “That sun is just killing me—right in my eyes.” The light is more than just natural; it’s spiritual. Marina tries to hide her sinful actions, and even the prisoner feels the conviction of his sin when it is exposed in the light of truth.
Neil and Marina divorce, but Neil does forgive her. Father Quintana becomes Neil’s mentor as he takes Neil with him when he ministers to the poor, sick and broken. Neil learns how to love by watching Father Quintana preach the gospel of love, freedom, forgiveness and deliverance to those who are suffering.
The film comes to a climax at this monologue, and all the characters experience reconciliation and redemption through what Father Quintana says. He says, “Christ be with me. Christ before me. Christ behind me. Christ in me. Christ beneath me. Christ above me. Christ on my right. Christ on my left. Christ in the heart. Thirsting. We thirst. Flood our souls with your spirit and life so completely that our lives may only be a reflection of yours. Shine through us. Show us how to seek you. We were made to see you.” All this is set to a montage of the father fleshing out the Sermon on the Mount. He attends to the meek and poor in spirit, and this message is what brings the peace to all of the characters’ lives. Neil learned to love from this and was able to forgive Marina. Marina, after experiencing grace, was left only to say, “Love that loves us. Thank you.” She arises and steps into the light. She no longer observes slivers of light through the holes of a wooden fence. She walks through a field alone and a beam of light flashes upon her face. Now what Mariana says at the film’s opening is brought to whole. “I melt. Into your eternal light.”
The film comes to a climax at this monologue, and all the characters experience reconciliation and redemption through what Father Quintana says. He says, “Christ be with me. Christ before me. Christ behind me. Christ in me. Christ beneath me. Christ above me. Christ on my right. Christ on my left. Christ in the heart. Thirsting. We thirst. Flood our souls with your spirit and life so completely that our lives may only be a reflection of yours. Shine through us. Show us how to seek you. We were made to see you.” All this is set to a montage of the father fleshing out the Sermon on the Mount. He attends to the meek and poor in spirit, and this message is what brings the peace to all of the characters’ lives. Neil learned to love from this and was able to forgive Marina. Marina, after experiencing grace, was left only to say, “Love that loves us. Thank you.” She arises and steps into the light. She no longer observes slivers of light through the holes of a wooden fence. She walks through a field alone and a beam of light flashes upon her face. Now what Mariana says at the film’s opening is brought to whole. “I melt. Into your eternal light.”