The Tree of Life had the most profound affect on me. I went to see it in a little tiny theatre with my boyfriend for three dollars each.
First of all, I cried through basically the whole thing. The pain the mother feels in the beginning, the shots of outer space with the opera music, the moment of grace between the dying dinosaur and the scavenger....everything. I found myself connecting very viscerally to so many aspects of the story. I'm very young, only 18, but I've always been ahead of my years mentally and physically. Watching the mother have her first child, Brad Pitt studying the little foot of the child; it made my biological alarms go off like sirens. Watching it, I could completely understand the desire to be a parent and the fascination one must have and the changes one must go through upon having a child. Also, when the oldest goes into that house and runs his fingers along the woman's lacy garments. I understood exactly what was going through his head. The interest in sex. The lack of understanding that goes along with that new interest.
When I left the theatre, I couldn't speak. We started walking out and the ticket man said, "How was it?" I couldn't reply. I just started crying and I ran into the bathroom. I didn't know why I was crying. It was just so beautiful.
And I don't really cry easily. I just had nothing to say. I was overwhelmed.
I think the mother represented grace and the father represented nature.