Knight Of Cups
Malick’s not-so-magic hour…
Awaiting the new Terrence Malick film used to be like contemplating the blank sky for the arrival of a dazzling comet. The first 38 years of his career gave us five films, all of them masterpieces or thereabouts, and the stretches of silence – 20 years between Days Of Heaven and The Thin Red Line – only added to the experience. Not anymore. Malick’s new movie, Knight Of Cups, is his third in five years, with two more already in the can. Shot through with beauty and awe, it confirms, after To The Wonder, that this extraordinary filmmaker’s current work is more intimate and reflective than ever. Unfortunately it’s also hollow, simplistic (especially in its portrayal of women) and open to charges of self-plagiarism.
The plot, such as it is, sees Christian Bale’s Hollywood screenwriter, Rick, undergoing a spiritual crisis. Flitting between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, he’s forever trailed by beautiful women (Natalie Portman, Teresa Palmer, Imogen Poots, Freida Pinto and, playing Rick’s ex-wife, Cate Blanchett) as he stares at architecture, wades into the sea and ambles in the desert. Occasionally Rick’s overbearing father (Brian Dennehy) and younger brother (Wes Bentley) drift into view, their incessant arguing at one point muted as Malick allows forlorn classical music to swell on the soundtrack by way of comment.
Man discombobulated and disconnected – from the natural world, from God (this is Malick’s most overtly Christian film) – is again the theme, and Emmanuel Lubezki’s gorgeous floaty-cam once more captures pirouetting women, a child on a swing and other now-clichés, while fragments of voiceover add murmur to the shimmer. This is Malick turning graceful, ever-decreasing circles, though there’s a thrill to seeing him traverse hotel rooms and studio lots, nightclubs and strip clubs, after a career wrapped up in the period and pastoral. THE VERDICT Idle impressionism, or a great artist doodling. Like protagonist Rick, Malick feels in need of reinvention – a return to the narrative cinema of Badlands, perhaps? › Certificate 15 Director Terrence Malick Starring Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman, Brian Dennehy, Wes Bentley Screenplay Terrence Malick Distributor Studiocanal Running time 118 mins