It is tactile film-making par excellence that pipes straight into your soul. Yes, Malick's best films are more spiritual experiences rather than mere entertainment.
However, at nearly three hours long some might find Malick's contemplative style too taxing, with a seemingly endless supply of swooning camera movements that are sublime but also numerous.
Those less versed in Malick's style will question if this relatively simple story could've been trimmed to a more digestible length.
For that, Malick himself might be considered a conscientious objector to today's popcorn movies, stubbornly forging out a work of meaningful cinematic art without bowing the knee to today's ever shortening attention span.
I applaud him for it, because what we have here is a master work.
A Hidden Life unflinchingly locks us inside Franz's moral conundrum. First showing paradise, with humanity and nature living as intended high in the pristine Austrian Alps, and then with a slow, prowling, cloying, camera ushering in the inexorable threat of Hitler.
Paradise lost, indeed.
It's an anachronistic parable for our Trumpian times, sympathetic to lives of moral fortitude lost in the white noise of history. A Hidden Life is a graceful and hauntingly beautiful symphony for the senses that is urgently pertinent. I loved it.
Cast: August Diehl, Valerie Pachner, Maria Simon
Director: Terence Malick
Running time: 173 mins
Rating: PG (Violence)
Verdict: A deeply moving Malick mood piece.
