Knight of Cups

Having made us wait 20 years between his second and third films Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line, one of American cinema's true artists, Terrence Malick, has been somewhat churning them out recently, with three expressionistic, interior-monologue-driven canvases in just over five years. But while The Tree of Life (2011) used the flashpoint of a 1950s family tragedy to ask questions about existence, and To the Wonder (2012) laid religious faith and environmental doubt over Ben Affleck's holiday romance, Knight of Cups expects us to lose ourselves in the affluent ennui of a Hollywood screenwriter. Christian Bale convinces as the restless, shallow LA player, measuring out his life in glamorous parties and past relationships (Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman, Imogen Poots), while haunted by the death of a younger brother and ferocious dad Brian Dennehy. Visually, Malick gleans surface poetry out of freeways, palm trees, Death Valley vistas and palatial Santa Monica real estate, and uses not just Tarot cards to provide intertitles but also readings from The Pilgrim's Progress as moral signposting. But the narrow palette soon leads to tedium, and the constant ogling of lithe female flesh from a director in his 70s begins to feel a bit Eyes Wide Shut.