Sex and love
Malick's cinematic beauty in story telling continues again with talented Emmanuel Lubezki as cinematographer.
Malick's trademarked visual images of wind-blown window curtains, flowing water, flowers, insects, sun flares, and underwater images of turtle and underwater plants are all here, familiar from his past films.
But, here Malick focuses on the emptiness and non-existent morality of Ben Affleck's desire for sex without commitment. Surprising, it also addresses the emptiness of his women's lives who want a stable life and family, but give sexual access to Ben in hopes he will marry them. Of course, Ben is so passive and irresponsible toward women that he has no intention of marrying them, or even tolerating them long-term.
Ben comes across on screen as a single-minded automaton whose occupation is some kind of environmental scientist checking for pollution from the petroleum industry, when he doesn't want sex at the time.
As a basically script-less movie, we must try to understand on-the-fly emotions of actors and actresses, whose work is very good. Many viewers will hate this movie. Fans of Malick's movies will understand.