As we grow more and more tired of dull as dishwater, predictable, structure obsessed nonsense, we come to love films that want to use the medium to take us on a trip. I see nothing wrong with enjoying beautiful imagery, stunning music and a bit of emotional self analysis for a couple of hours. Or would you rather the story by numbers of say, Joy? I may not have loved this as much as Thin Red Line, or Tree of Life, But am I happy to spend two hours with Mr. M? Indeed I am. Anyone who has led anything verging on an interesting life will have plenty to ponder as this washes over them. This was like meditating. It's freeing to let a sense of the story wash over you without having some contrived plot shoved down your throat. I let the cinema invigorated and cleansed.

It takes a while of watching the movie before starting to appreciate it. However, the longer you get, the more it starts growing on you. Its modernistic style is certainly not for everyone - but the combination of beautiful pictures and captivating music as well as the subtle messages of the flick, is in my opinion brilliant. As with many modernistic pieces it requires that you as a spectator participate, which is very giving, that is, if you actually do it. Then you will experience the emptiness we as human beings have to wrestle with: the apathetic nature of just following the flow: the slumber we experience the moment we stop being active and stop shaping our existence. The movie is a reminder not to fall in slumber, but to wake up and see the pearl.

I could write a novel about this film. For quite some time I was thinking how to write short review and not miss the essence. Mass bashing of this movie does not speak so much about its quality as it speaks about today's audience. World got faster, people have no time, they're impatient and nervous, and even worse, they're addicted to adrenaline injections served by modern big and home screens. Unfortunately, this movie is not for everyone. It's not for most of people. But if you are willing to relax, open yourselves emotionally and let the moment carry you, this film could be enriching experience. They say it's pretentious, boring and has no story. True, it's not perfect, it has pretentious and even boring moments and it is very tiring watch if you are not capable to let go. Fact that it does not have plot doers not mean it has no story. It has story, and what a story it has, it just does not tell it in conventional ways. It tells the story by picture and sound and emotion. Every cadre is like a postcard, every sound contributes to artistic photography. This is one of those movies that are not supposed to be analyzed, but felt. I never saw any Terrence Malick movies till now, and if this one really is his worst then I definitely must watch all the rest.

8,5/10

P.S. For those incapable to enjoy artistic movie, if nothing else, two hours of Christian Bale surrounded with many gorgeous women should be enough reason to at least try.

• Hungry. Longing for something without knowing what it is.

• Treat this world as it deserves. There are no principles... just circumstances.

• You think when you reach certain age things will start making sense. Then you find out you're as lost as you were before. I suppose that's what damnation is. The pieces of your life never to come together. Just splashed out there.

• So much I was given. So much I left behind.

• Real life's so hard to find. Where it is? How do you get there?

• Pay attention to this moment. And everything is there... perfect and complete just as it is.

• There's so much love inside us that never gets out.