By: Sydney Franklin
Read the following:
Love is not only a feeling; love is a duty.
To love is to run the risk of failure, the risk of betrayal. You fear your love has died; it perhaps I waiting to be transformed into something higher.
Awaken the divine presence, which sleeps in each man, each woman. Know each other in that love that never changes.
These are the words accompanying the official trailer of Terrence Malick’s new film To the Wonder. The storyline follows Neil (Ben Affleck) and Marina (Olga Kurylenko) who fall in love abroad, celebrating their early days in total bliss, but crash to reality upon returning together to Neil’s hometown in Oklahoma. Passion fades and Neil finds himself reuniting with a childhood friend named Jane (Rachel McAdams). It also features Javier Barden as a priest struggling with his faith.
Because I haven’t seen the movie, I can’t give a review. One will come as soon as I exit the movie theater and grab my laptop. I promise. But for now, I thought it would be ‘wonder’ful, if you will, to reflect upon the phrases spoken above.
Many students at Milligan have recently become engaged and are headed down the aisle towards God’s sacred law of matrimonial commitment: a lifetime spent with one person. Just one person with whom you have chosen to express your complete humanness.
Yes, this is a scary thought, but also a beautiful one. I believe this film will challenge viewers to question to the steadfastness of wedding vows and what it means to be faithful. Maybe even what it means to turn a life long love into something glorifying, something bigger than it may seem.
To the Wonder entered U.S. theaters on April 12 and was the late film critic Roger Ebert’s last reviewed movie. Please read his review here: To the Wonder Review.
And go see it for yourself. My review is to come.
Check out the trailer here.
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