From Cannes: "Trees" Not So Bad As Reported

For a film that was booed at its first Cannes press screening—in front of the filmmakers themselves, no less—Gus Van Sant’s “The Sea of Trees” is not horrible by any means. With the ever-marketable Matthew McConaughey at its helm, along with two hours of gorgeous nature visuals by cinematographer Kasper Tuxen that are nicely complemented by a charming score from Mason Bates, perhaps the film’s only misstep is writer Chris Sparling’s script, which is filled with unabashed sentimentality that occasionally crosses the border into trite—an uncommon departure for a Van Sant film.

The film opens with a mostly dialogue-less montage of McConaughey’s character, Arthur Brennan, traveling to Japan’s Aokigahara forest, a beautiful location at the base of Mount Fuji known for its popularity as a suicide destination. Commonly referred to as the titular “Sea of Trees,” Aokigahara is also believed to be a spiritual place—what Americans would call “purgatory,” says a Japanese man named Takumi Nakamura (Ken Watanabe) whom Brennan encounters deep in the forest. Nakamura, dehydrated and wrists bloodied two days wandering the forest, has changed his mind about killing himself, and Brennan feels compelled to help him find his way out of the sprawling forest. As the two men travel through the perilously dense foliage, they learn more about each other and their personal motivations for coming to Aokigahara, growing into a truly moving rapport between McConaughey and Watanabe by the film’s end.

However, “The Sea of Trees” often feels like two separate films merged into one. In between scenes of Brennan and Nakamura travelling through the lush forest, the viewers are treated to flashbacks about Brennan’s life as an unpublished adjunct professor with a failing marriage (to a character played by Naomi Watts). The characters’ realization of their marital problems is touching, as Watts and McConaughey each bring the perfect amount of bipolar animosity and tenderness to their interactions. However, the death of Watts’s character—Brennan’s impetus for going to Aokigahara—is a subplot fraught with emotionally exploitative clichés that detract from the beauty of the present-day storyline. McConaughey’s gradual spiritual transformation in the forest hits all of the right dramatic beats, but its climax is similarly tainted by the script’s unnecessary narrative handholding, which reduces a moving moment of catharsis into a platitudinous, Disney-like ending. Nonetheless, these shortcomings don’t render the film much less enjoyable to watch. From breathtaking shots of the lush, green landscape to close-ups of the two men walking through the forest at night, “The Sea of Trees” is still a visual spectacle to behold—just less Cannes fare than standard Hollywood.