A Hidden Life (2019) ***1/2

Unlike Knight Of Cups (2015) (my review here), I felt more connected to the characters in A Hidden Life (2019) and it felt a bit less meandering. Unfortunately though, the film feels unnecessarily long at just shy of three hours. I think the same ideas could have been delivered in a two or even two and a half hour long film. 

AHL is based on the true story of Franz Jägerstätter (played here by August Diehl), an Austrian who refused to fight for the Nazis in WWII. Franz's resistance and refusal to swear an oath of allegiance to Hitler led to him being imprisoned and eventually executed in 1943. The performances/narrative are typical of what you'd expect from a Terrence Malick film—lots of gazing off, upward or downward, touching the earth/objects/other characters, little dialogue, poetic voice-over. Nothing bad, just a bit formulaic for Malick at this point (what used to feel spontaneous now comes off as staged).

Of course there is plenty of absolutely breathtaking cinematography and scenery via Jörg Widmer (here serving as DP, though he's been a camera operator for Malick since 2005's The New World). But I found the jerky camera movements (I'm assuming to signify things being amiss) and quasi-fisheye lens look in many shots a bit too distracting.

Overall, A Hidden Life is a very good film and feels like a slight return to form—easily Malick's best since The Tree Of Life (2011) (my review here)—but it doesn't quite capture the magic of his pre To The Wonder (2012) work.

You can find my Terrence Malick Feature Films Ranked list here.