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Like a found object on the beach, Terrence Malick's latest rumination "Knight of Cups" is equal parts fascinating, mystifying and covered in sea foam.
The main character is Rick (Christian Bale), a Hollywood screenwriter crippled by melancholy. Malick and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki ("The Revenant") follow Rick as he drives around L.A., attends bimbo-stuffed parties and takes frequent walks along the Pacific Ocean.
We see him sometimes with family members: his resentful brother (Wes Bentley), his dissipated father (Brian Dennehy) or his loving mother (Cherry Jones). But mostly, we see him with a succession of women: a too-young Goth girl (Imogen Poots), a moody fashion model (Frieda Pinto), his self-sacrificing ex-wife (Cate Blanchett), a statuesque blonde (Isabel Lucas), a playful stripper (Teresa Palmer) and a tragic married woman (Natalie Portman).
Malick assigns each person a title card, named for characters on tarot cards, but it's up to the audience to assign meaning to his cinematic musings — which, as with his 2012 drama "To the Wonder," are rambling to the point of incoherence. The visuals, particularly the many trips to the ocean, are breathtaking, though.
'Knight of Cups'
Opens Friday, March 25, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas; rated R for some nudity, sexuality and language; 118 minutes.