The Sea of Trees

The Sea of Trees follows Matthew McConaughey’s Arthur Brennan as he arrives in Japan intending to commit suicide within the country’s famed Aokigahara forest, with the character’s efforts immediately stymied by the sudden appearance of an injured man (Ken Watanabe’s Takumi Nakamura) trying to find his way to safety. Filmmaker Gus Van Sant certainly does an effective job of initially luring the viewer into the deliberately-paced picture, as The Sea of Trees boasts a seriously striking opening stretch that seems to promise a languid yet haunting drama – with this vibe lasting right up until Arthur spots Watanabe’s wounded character. The movie, past that point, segues into a fairly uneven narrative that transpires both in the forest and in flashback, with the latter detailing the series of events, involving the rocky relationship between Arthur and Naomi Watts’ Joan, that ultimately leads McConaughey’s damaged protagonist to the title locale. It does, interestingly enough, become clear that The Sea of Trees is at its best during those flashbacks, as McConaughey and Watts’ strong work elevates these somewhat run-of-the-mill sequences and ensures that they remain a highlight within the exceedingly erratic proceedings. The movie’s watchable atmosphere takes a steep nosedive as it enters its palpably anticlimactic final stretch, which, when coupled with an absolutely ludicrous conclusion, effectively ensures that The Sea of Trees ends on as underwhelming and unsatisfactory a note as one could possibly envision. It’s too bad, really, given the strength of McConaughey’s solid work here and Kasper Tuxen’s often breathtaking cinematography, with the movie’s myriad of positive attributes, in the end, unable to compensate for a screenplay rife with overt deficiencies.

**1/2 out of ****