KNIGHT OF CUPS

Whilst Terrence Malick's previous film, “To The Wonder”, ultimately left me cold and frustrated due to a lack of access to its main characters, it is still a film that I find myself drawn to to continually revisit. No doubt the stunning visuals have a play in that, and let's face it, as an exercise in pretty pictures, the film is an outright success. My point is that even when they fail to initially engage you, there is something in Malick's cinema that constantly draws you back to it. He is a special filmmaker, no doubt, and a new film from him is always an event for me. So even coming off of the disappointment that was “To The Wonder”, his latest film was still one of my six most anticipated films of 2015.

The story of “Knight of Cups” is surprisingly simplistic at least on a surface level, as we are introduced to a Hollywood screenwriter, named Rick (played by Christian Bale), who is going through an existential crisis of sorts. He is realising just how shallow and hollow his life has become whilst existing in the world of huge parties and absolute gluttony. He appears lost and is attempting to find himself, and we are along for the journey as we watch him interact with both family members and a long list of short-term girlfriends, trying to find the spark that will re-ignite his life.

This was such an unusual film to watch in that even now I'm still not sure exactly how I feel about it. Throughout the film I was constantly going from liking it, to hating it, to just being frustrated by it all, and by the end I'm not sure we really learnt anything about Rick. The film regularly references a story that Rick's father used to tell him as a boy, about a prince who is sent to another world on a journey to find a pearl. Once at his destination, the locals give him a drink from a cup that takes away his memory, making him forget everything; the pearl, his family and even the fact that he is a prince. Even though he doesn't remember, his father continually sends people to try and make him remember just who he is. It is easy to see how this story parallels what Rick is currently going through, because we understand that he came to Hollywood with dreams of becoming something or doing something grand, but once arriving in the town, he has gotten caught up in the vapid lifestyle so common there to the point that he has forgotten why he was there to begin with. Instead of creating, he appears to just be existing (rather than living) as he goes from one pointless party to the next, stringing along a list of lovers on his journey of nothingness. The problem with the film is that even though Rick is the main character of the film, he is barely present throughout the film. He is always physically there but we never get to know him. He barely speaks, although we do hear his thoughts via the typical Terrence Malick voice-overs, and he is forever walking, seemingly with no destination, just looking around at Los Angeles. He comes across as an extra in his own story, almost like a void. I honestly do not understand why Christian Bale would agree to such a role because he does not get to create a character of any sort, let alone even act out emotions. He is a blank slate, with the same clueless expression on his face always.

The girls fare much better in the film, and believe me there are a lot of them. Rick has relationships with no less than six girls throughout the film, all played by different well known actresses, the likes of Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman, Imogen Poots, Teresa Palmer, Freida Pinto, and Isabel Lucas. At least the girls though get a chance to create some sort of character, despite how brief their appearances in the film may be. The scenes with Cate Blanchett and Natalie Portman particularly are very good and are probably the highlights of the film. Blanchett plays Rick's ex-wife Nancy who is also a doctor, but through the interactions with her, we get a small sense of what Rick was before Hollywood changed him. Natalie Portman plays Elizabeth, a married woman Rick is having an affair with until life and a pregnancy intervenes. As good as these scenes were, I was stunned at just how short Portman's appearance was in the film seeing how prominent she is in the film's marketing. However the girl who gets the shortest end of the stick is Isabel Lucas, which is ironic because it appears that it is through her character and settling down and having a family with her that Rick finds himself again. She is given the “Ben Affleck” treatment in that her face rarely appears in frame and I do not think we hear her speak once.

Other reasons why “Knight of Cups” is a frustrating experience all have to do with the Terrence Malick trademarks that usually make his films so great, but here work against the film. I usually love his use of voice-over and believe he is the best person working in cinema today at using this technique but here he appears to lose total focus with it. Not only are we bombarded with Rick's “poetic” thoughts, but also everyone that he comes in contact with, even if it is for one scene only. It is very odd, and it really rubbed me the wrong way because it didn't seem to add anything to the journey at all. Something that is becoming very regular in a Malick film is witnessing fragments of scenes as opposed to watching scenes full, and there are scenes of obvious drama (particularly between Rick, his brother and his father) that Malick mutes the dialogue so again we have no access to the character we are following. We know that both Rick and his brother are angry at their Dad but have no idea why, and what makes it worse is the fact it comes across as the only time these actors get to flex their muscles and yet its treated as unimportant. Another aspect of the film that I just didn't understand was that Malick breaks up the story with a number of title cards, each representing a tarot card (like the Knight of Cups of the title), but what followed, at least in my eyes, didn't seem to represent the card presented to us. It seemed too clever for its own good.

At least being a Terrence Malick film photographed by Emmanuel Lubezki, you know the film is going to look good, right? Well, the answer is yes.....to a point. It's true that Malick sees the world (through Lubezki's lens) in such a unique way, that in all his films he comes out with some stunningly amazing and original images and that is once again true here. And yes, all the girls look gorgeous. But.......and I can't believe I'm about to say this, but the way the film was shot annoyed the hell out of me. The constantly moving and floating camera drove me insane, and I just wanted it to stop and be still for just a second. Keep still so we can revel in the beauty you have created. I don't know why, but it just bugged me this time around.

One thing that I did like though and think Malick got so right was his disgust at the money and excess thrown around via the Hollywood life, whilst at the same time there is such a problem with homelessness and the poor in LA. Whilst it is always present in the film, he doesn't make it explicit so it becomes preachy. In fact the majority of the film shows just how shallow a place Los Angeles is and the entire lifestyle that exists there with the primary focus on the external rather than internal. Its all surface, with no depth. His camera photographs iconic LA landmarks in such a way, that they look ridiculous and fake. In fact I would go so far to say that LA becomes a large character in the film, but a very flawed one.

All of the above is how I felt whilst and straight after viewing the film, but later on I was curious about the film's title, “Knight of Cups”, and what the tarot card actually represented so I decided to research it some more. In doing so it has brought more understanding to the film, and I have to give Malick more credit than I was initially going to. The card relates to artists and “brings a warning about getting too caught up in fantasy and the romanticism of life” because while it “excites, it lacks any real meaning as you deny your basic commitment to the world and your imagination produces nothing”. This is relevant to the movie because Rick has just been hired to write a new screenplay so perhaps he is going through some sort of detox ridding himself of the unimportant in his life so he can begin creating once again. At least it is another way to read the story. Even more interesting is when the Knight of Cups is reversed, as that signifies a situation that was once incredibly appealing, but ultimately turns out to be something very different so you walk away feeling disappointed. Again this fits well within the story, and these late revelations want me to now revisit the film again, particularly the scene where Rick visits the Tarot card reader to see just how the card of the title is presented to him.

Until then though, I'm going to have to say this was a very frustrating cinema experience. At times it was brilliant, but more often then not it felt like it didn't have much to say. I couldn't shake the feeling that the film was just as hollow as the lifestyle it was condemning. Like the character he is playing, I thought Christian Bale looked totally lost throughout the film as if he had no idea what was going on with his character at any given moment. The usual Malick tropes also seemed to fall flat here, to the point that it appears that the director has now become lazy and comfortable in a style that doesn't adhere to all stories. I would really love for Malick to tackle a narrative based story again (like “The Thin Red Line” or “The New World”) in an attempt to re-charge his batteries, as his style is starting to stale. That said, I'm sure I will re-visit this in the future, this time with the knowledge of what the tarot cards mean, and hopefully this will open the door for me to enjoy “Knight of Cups” so much more.

2.5 Stars.