{"id":1061,"date":"2016-09-07T12:33:54","date_gmt":"2016-09-07T12:33:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/?p=1061"},"modified":"2016-11-22T05:45:03","modified_gmt":"2016-11-22T05:45:03","slug":"the-sea-of-trees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/2016\/09\/the-sea-of-trees.html","title":{"rendered":"The Sea of Trees"},"content":{"rendered":"

In The Sea of Trees<\/em> (2016, USA), Arthur Brennan (Matthew McConaughey) goes to a Japanese forest to think about the unthinkable\u2014death and dying, at his own hand.<\/p>\n

Before he does, he meets a Japanese man who is wandering in the forest aimlessly. Arthur tries to save the man.<\/p>\n

Both form a connection despite their lost lives.<\/p>\n

The film flashbacks to moments in Arthur\u2019s home life, which is on the rocks, his marriage teetering, and his wife is in trouble.<\/p>\n

The center of good is Arthur wanting to help the lost Japanese man. Arthur\u2019s a scientist so would egg on life rather than destroy it. So his attempt at suicide may seem implausible. However, Arthur is a character in the throes of complexity.<\/p>\n

The movie is non-linear or not a straight forward story. Flashbacks back and forth, between scenes in the forest and what happened at home in Arthur\u2019s life, indicate complexity.<\/p>\n

At home, the arguments between Arthur and wife have believable dialogue.<\/p>\n

The Sea of Trees<\/em> keeps your eyes glued and interested in the outcome because of why Arthur is the way he is. I overlooked the far-fetched\u2014Arthur\u2019s meeting with the Japanese man and a pivotal scene near the end\u2014because down the middle is the integrity of the story, which is well done.<\/p>\n

The story<\/h4>\n

Japanese culture where suicide is prevalent, but which has to be controlled. So there is a forest for people when they are down to their last. They need to decide\u2014life or death? These people are encouraged to choose life, as they walk through the forest.<\/p>\n

Dying is around, in the forest, but the powers of life can be stronger, at least for one.<\/p>\n

Why not the others? People have died by their own hand in the forest. If one can be saved, and not others, is not very well thought out. It makes the social aspect of the film incomplete; everyone can\u2019t potentially be saved.<\/p>\n

Though The Sea of Tree\u00a0<\/em>‘s message to everyone watching this movie is good. The message is a positive resolution to a suicidal complex.<\/p>\n

The Sea of Trees<\/em> is showing us that life still can be worth living.<\/p>\n

Saying that life is worth living because all the spiritual boxes must be ticked to be saved, is lacking something. People in these situations don\u2019t need a check list to become better.<\/p>\n

But if The Sea of Trees<\/em> gives someone a glimmer of hope in a dark place, then their story may turn out for the better, than worse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In The Sea of Trees (2016, USA), Arthur Brennan (Matthew McConaughey) goes to a Japanese forest to think about the unthinkable\u2014death and dying, at his own hand. Before he does, he meets a Japanese man who is wandering in the forest aimlessly. Arthur tries to save the man. Both form a connection despite their lost…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":602,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,32,320],"tags":[26,34,33,46,9,54,7,24,39,12,25],"class_list":["post-1061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2016-movies","category-dramas","category-spiritual","tag-change","tag-connect","tag-drama","tag-existentialism","tag-film-reviews","tag-freedom","tag-movies","tag-problems","tag-relationships","tag-second-chance","tag-survival-movies"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Sea of Trees - Life at the Movies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Though not perfectly timed for the dramatic g-spot, The Sea of Trees is still telling that life still can be worth living for.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/2016\/09\/the-sea-of-trees.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Sea of Trees - Life at the Movies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Though not perfectly timed for the dramatic g-spot, The Sea of Trees is still telling that life still can be worth living for.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/2016\/09\/the-sea-of-trees.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Life at the Movies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-09-07T12:33:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-11-22T05:45:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"pveugelaers\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@peteswriting\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Sea of Trees - Life at the Movies","description":"Though not perfectly timed for the dramatic g-spot, The Sea of Trees is still telling that life still can be worth living for.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/2016\/09\/the-sea-of-trees.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Sea of Trees - Life at the Movies","og_description":"Though not perfectly timed for the dramatic g-spot, The Sea of Trees is still telling that life still can be worth living for.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/2016\/09\/the-sea-of-trees.html","og_site_name":"Life at the Movies","article_published_time":"2016-09-07T12:33:54+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-11-22T05:45:03+00:00","author":"pveugelaers","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@peteswriting","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/2016\/09\/the-sea-of-trees.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/2016\/09\/the-sea-of-trees.html","name":"The Sea of Trees - Life at the Movies","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-09-07T12:33:54+00:00","dateModified":"2016-11-22T05:45:03+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/#\/schema\/person\/130d91946aab7658f3eb78312dec28a9"},"description":"Though not perfectly timed for the dramatic g-spot, The Sea of Trees is still telling that life still can be worth living for.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/2016\/09\/the-sea-of-trees.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/2016\/09\/the-sea-of-trees.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/2016\/09\/the-sea-of-trees.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Sea of Trees"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/","name":"Life at the Movies","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Peter Veugelaers","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/#\/schema\/person\/130d91946aab7658f3eb78312dec28a9","name":"pveugelaers","description":"I\u2019m a blogger, and writer for faith-based, mainstream, and alternative publications, in the form of articles, inspiration, and film reviews and commentaries. I enjoy catching up with sport, listening to music, buying a coffee, and keeping an eye on current events. First \u2018awesome\u2019 movie moment was Raiders of the Lost Ark. Amadeus, first \u2018serious\u2019 film. A 3 star rating out of 5 stars is above average from me.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.peteswriting.wordpress.com","https:\/\/x.com\/peteswriting"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/author\/pveugelaers"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/602"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1061"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1063,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1061\/revisions\/1063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}