To the Wonder
Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: April 12, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
58
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 41 Critic Reviews
Positive:
22
Mixed:
14
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
The PlaylistOliver LytteltonMar 3, 2013
A beautiful, hearfelt and raw piece of work. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyApr 11, 2013
I found it to be some kind of wonderful, flaws and all. This is one to be taken in like meditation. Clear the mind and let what is in front of you wash over you. Save the contemplation for later. Read full review
90
SalonAndrew O'HehirApr 11, 2013
As with any other movie, it’s all a question of what attitude you carry into the theater, and whether you’re prepared to go where Malick wants to take you. All I can tell you is that once I surrendered to the ebb and flow of Lubezki’s images, the elegiac and almost anti-narrative mode, the sweet-sad blend of romance, eroticism and tragedy and the hypnotic score – which mixes contemporary electronic pop with Berlioz, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Henryk Górecki and Arvo Pärt – I really never wanted it to stop. Read full review
90
TimeRichard CorlissMar 3, 2013
This is a test, requiring rapt concentration and acute attention, and repaying a hundredfold. For spectators dulled by the midget movies of an arrtstically timid era, the film may be a chore. For those on Malick’s rarified wavelength, it’s a wonder. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertApr 7, 2013
There will be many who find To the Wonder elusive and too effervescent. They'll be dissatisfied by a film that would rather evoke than supply. I understand that, and I think Terrence Malick does, too. But here he has attempted to reach more deeply than that: to reach beneath the surface, and find the soul in need. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasApr 10, 2013
Still, there’s no doubt that To The Wonder is a fans-only proposition, continuing Malick’s evolution (or devolution, for some) from the narrative grounding of "Badlands" to much more abstract, poeticized notions of the human condition. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnMar 3, 2013
To the Wonder renders the familiar terrain of romantic dysfunction on a grand scale. Malick haters may not change their tune, but at least they can admit that To the Wonder maintains a consistent thematic focus. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfApr 9, 2013
To the Wonder is arty for sure, but for the first time, its maker is working with anxieties we all feel. Let’s hope this Malick sticks around for a while. Read full review
80
VarietyJustin ChangApr 7, 2013
Never before has Malick explored sexuality so openly onscreen, and while the nudity is fairly discreet, the eroticism of flesh cradling flesh, even the gesture of a hand touching a shoulder, turns out to be a natural subject for Lubezki’s exquisitely graceful camerawork. Read full review
80
EmpireIan Freer Mar 3, 2013
Less ambitious than The Tree Of Life, To The Wonder remains 100 percent pure, unadulterated Malick, an absorbing, thoughtful, moving meditation on the things that matter. Read full review
80
Total FilmJames MottramMar 3, 2013
To The Wonder doesn’t quite live up to the sky-high expectations set by his earlier films. But it’s still a brave, soul-stirring and sensitive work. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawMar 3, 2013
At its best, Malick's cinematic rhapsody is glorious; during his uncertain moments, he appears to be repeating himself. But what delight there is in this film. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonApr 19, 2013
To the Wonder teeters between experimentation and incoherence. Does it deserve to be seen? Absolutely. Just be aware of what you’re getting into. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsApr 18, 2013
Malick is a true searcher, true to his preoccupations and definitions of soulful rhapsody. To the Wonder repeats its central motifs aplenty, yet you may find yourself thinking about life, and living, and love, while sorting through the movie. Even if it drives you nertz. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle SmithApr 11, 2013
Typically, To the Wonder seems mostly locked in the thoughts of its characters, whispered so only we can hear, with no more actual back-and-forth dialogue than would cover the back of your ticket stub. Read full review
70
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekApr 9, 2013
For all the absurdity, there's also something strangely touching about it, maybe because for once Malick has allowed himself to be unsure. To the Wonder is an irresolute piece of work, a sketchbook of a movie, one made by a human being rather than an august master. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianMarc MohanApr 25, 2013
Lyrical and gorgeous, it indulges in enough trademark Malickian touches to seem almost a parody of itself. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanApr 10, 2013
Through the character of a saddened priest, Malick seems to be saying that the reason for our breakups, for our fragmented lives and relationships, is that we can no longer see God. If we could, we would be whole again. That may be true, but in To the Wonder, it's Terrence Malick who isn't letting his characters be whole. Read full review
67
Film.comJordan HoffmanMar 3, 2013
To the Wonder is distinctly lacking in oomph and, without an emotional connection, without anything interesting happening on the screen, the beauty can only take you so far before the endeavor falls like a house of cards. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Michael PosnerApr 18, 2013
Apparently, whole layers of the projected storyline did not survive the editing suite. Actors Rachel Weisz, Michael Sheen, Barry Pepper and Amanda Peet were all part of the original script. Their footage ended on the cutting-room floor. Lucky them. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliApr 15, 2013
There are moments of pure poetry in the movie but the production as a whole seems overlong and repetitive and takes a detour or two that distract from the aching beauty of the central story. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineEd GonzalezApr 2, 2013
Throughout To the Wonder, the new and old are incessantly twinned, blurred into a package that suggests an experimental dance piece. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottApr 11, 2013
The fine intentions of To the Wonder pave a road to puzzlement, not awe. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezMay 2, 2013
The movie is intentionally elusive, like a memory you can’t quite fully recall, but the result has all the depth and weight of a greeting card. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzApr 25, 2013
In To the Wonder [Malick] doesn’t give us enough to work with, leaving us with a thing of great beauty, but not much more. Read full review
50
NPRMark JenkinsApr 11, 2013
Pretty but inert, To the Wonder is a vaporous mystery wrapped in a gauzy enigma — a cinematic riddle that'll appeal principally to those eager for another piece, however tiny, of the puzzle that is Terrence Malick. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaApr 11, 2013
"There's nothing here!" screams Romina Mondello - Kurylenko's Euro gal pal, walking the deserted sidewalks of this Anytown, U.S.A. Boy, truer words . . .. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrApr 11, 2013
The director’s first real misfire, a meditation on love and lost paradise that starts with breathtaking assurance and slowly crumbles into self-parody. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenApr 10, 2013
Although To the Wonder never transported me, personally, to the ecstatic heights the title promises, there is still much here worth one’s engagement. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter TraversApr 10, 2013
Malick keeps pushing Affleck to the corner of the frame, as if he's more interested in the women. I found it difficult to maintain interest in anyone. If there's such a thing as a feather that weighs a ton, it's To the Wonder. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinApr 8, 2013
To the Wonder feels like generalized woo-woo—and self-parody. Read full review
42
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerApr 26, 2013
Is Malick deliberately courting self-parody here? Probably not. That would imply he had a sense of humor. Read full review
42
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanApr 25, 2013
Affleck has two expressions, a smirk and a scowl. Bardem never changes expression at all: Whatever he’s saying comes out with a dispassionate, hangdog glumness. Perhaps he watched the daily rushes once too often. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternApr 11, 2013
Having been deeply moved — though often exasperated — by Terrence Malick's previous film, "The Tree of Life," I don't have the heart to belabor the failings of his new one, which is depressed and deeply depressing. The only thing that's wonderful in To the Wonder is the imagery. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierApr 11, 2013
It feels like a high-end perfume ad. Read full review
40
The New YorkerDavid DenbyApr 8, 2013
The movie is pervaded by a cataclysmic sense of loss, but we don’t need to be chastised with the ideal of Christian love to understand that sex isn’t enough. And someone might tell Malick that beauty isn’t enough, either. Only a major filmmaker could have made To the Wonder, but nothing in it adds up. Read full review
38
USA TodayClaudia PuigApr 11, 2013
Never was a film so visually stunning and so intolerable as To the Wonder. Read full review
37
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanApr 11, 2013
Clocks in at close to two hours. It feels much longer. By comparison, Malick’s World War II epic “The Thin Red Line” tipped the scales at a whopping 170 minutes. But at least that 1998 film had people shooting at each other. There’s no such excitement here. Read full review
30
SlateDana StevensApr 11, 2013
I didn’t like the movie at all — found it boring, unintentionally comical, at times even (a word I seldom use) pretentious — but I admire the rest of your work so much that I nonetheless feel the need to defend To the Wonder. Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyMar 3, 2013
A film that seems drained of life and ideas rather than sustained by them. Read full review
0
ObserverRex ReedApr 9, 2013
Plotless and almost mute, To the Wonder is the kind of fiasco that keeps film-festival programmers salivating and discriminating audiences stampeding toward the exit doors. It’s a simpering yawn that makes "The Tree of Life" seem like an action thriller with Bruce Willis. It is about … nothing. Read full review
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