You can probably guess what happens. But the standard-issue life-after-death flick is worth watching just for Gainsbourg.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 8, 2019

The heavy-handed use of symbolism is, at times, offensively patronising and cliched.

| Nov 15, 2018

[The Tree is] one of the most personally striking films of the year.

| Original Score: A | Oct 17, 2013

[It] would be much easier to write off as silly and self-serious, if it weren't so involving.

| Mar 18, 2012

It's well worth seeing the performance of young Morgana Davies as Simone, a child who becomes convinced that her late father speaks and listens to her through the comforting branches of the tree next to her house.

| Jan 5, 2012

In the end, The Tree is something of a stretch; but it's a good stretch, a mix of mysticism and family dynamics both satisfying and intriguing.

| Original Score: B | Nov 4, 2011

Pacing problems and shallow psychological inquiries plague this film almost as much as the overworked metaphor that supplies the film's title.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Sep 30, 2011

"The Tree" might have suffered from too much symbolism if not for writer-director Julie Bertuccelli's deft touch and Gainsbourg's appealing performance.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 2, 2011

A wonderfully embraceable little film, one that is at turns honeysuckle-sweet, cherry blossom-delicate, and as comforting as the shade of a City Park oak.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 26, 2011

Despite the potential for some supernatural grandiosity, the tone here remains understated and quiet, and Gainsbourg's performance feels lived-in, and deep, and right.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 25, 2011

It's a quiet film and a quietly moving one.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 19, 2011

The destructive nature of the family's inability to move on from the past starts being heavily telegraphed by characters having heart-to-hearts with the tree's branches, or those same branches invading the house in calamitous ways.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 15, 2011

Despite its eccentric, boldly obvious central metaphor, the film feels bland and oddly inconsequential.

| Aug 14, 2011

Beautifully filmed in the harsh, dry landscape, "The Tree" is often mesmerizing...

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 11, 2011

t may sound like a Stephen King horror yarn but The Tree's a meandering, mystical tale of dealing with a tragic loss.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 7, 2011

The symbolism is both crude and vague, the atmosphere dreary, and not before time there comes a tornado to solve everyone's problems.

| Aug 7, 2011

Expert at being riven, by grief, sex or just about anything else, Gainsbourg is as intense as ever.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 5, 2011

The imagery is almost unendurably self-conscious, and Gainsbourg, with her low, musical, murmuring voice, gives the kind of performance you suspect she can do standing on her head. Her final lines are irritating beyond belief.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Aug 4, 2011

The characters grandstand and goof off with increasing glumness.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 4, 2011

Gainsbourg's skilful but customarily tense performance can make the whole thing a slightly brittle experience - imagine how Toni Collette might have warmed the general aura.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 4, 2011