Was this review the famed critic's perfect finale?
The Big Picture Roger Ebert, who was for several decades the face of film criticism, died on April 4, 2013. For several years he had been managing life with a particularly destabilizing cancer, which had altered his appearance, and taken away his ability to eat, drink, and speak. Many public figures would have withdrawn, but Ebert remained visible while making the significant accommodations his health forced him to make.
This wish, of course, came true. As Jim Emerson, Ebert's long-time web editor, and a wonderful critic himself, was quick to clarify, Ebert had filed some reviews that had not yet been published. The last of these was not the review for The Host it was for Malick's To the Wonder. People were relieved that Roger Ebert's last review turned out to be a "thumbs up." But To the Wonder is more than that, it's a pivotal movie from one of America's most important filmmakers.
To the Wonder contains all of Malick's hallmarks. But it was in many ways a departure. For one thing, his previous films had all been period pieces with epic subjects. The New World told the story of Pocahontas. The Thin Red Line depicted the fighting in the Pacific during World War II. Days of Heaven was about a murder at the dawn of the 20th Century. His most recent movie, The Tree of Life, which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes, told the smaller-scale story of a family during the 1950s.
In a recent interview in Vanity Fair, Martin Scorsese related a quote from fellow legendary director Akira Kurosawa: "I’m only now beginning to see the possibility of what cinema could be, and it’s too late." Kurosawa had said this when receiving a lifetime achievement Oscar, at 83. Scorsese, now 80, proclaimed "now I know what he means.” The creative process has no sense of how late it is. When legends pass, it's never with perfect timing.
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