Among film aficionados, one of the most anticipated movies of 2011 is “The Tree of Life.” The trailer is a visual wonder, and the movie likely will be too, although whether writer and director Terrence Malick can sustain a compelling storyline for a full two hours remains to be seen.

The key for most viewers will be whether the movie doesn’t get weighted down by overemphasizing images. The most commonly lodged complaint against Malick is that his movies can be tedious. What separate Malick’s past films, “The Thin Red Line” and “Days of Heaven,” are blades of grass. They were essential to the action of the story in “The Thin Red Line,” while the blades of grass just looked pretty in “Days of Heaven.”

Malick graduated from Harvard summa cum laude with a degree in philosophy. He went on to become a Rhodes scholar, taught philosophy at MIT and received an MFA at the American Film Institute, which is not exactly the standard resume you see with most directors. Malick began directing films in 1973 with “Badlands.” Five years later, he returned with “Days of Heaven.” Following the tremendous success of “Days of Heaven,” Malick moved to Paris unannounced and didn’t direct films again for 20 years.

He is the antithesis of the workhorse, stick-with-the-script direction of someone like Alfred Hitchcock. Malick is well known for taking a long time to make films and never sticking with the original plan or original script. He made “The Thin Red Line” in 1998 and didn’t return until 2005 for “The New World.” It seems now, at the age of 67, he is finally feeling his own mortality and working at breakneck speed—well, for Terrence Malick’s standard at any rate.

“The Tree of Life” is set to be released on May 27, and he has already finished shooting another project that will star Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Rachel Weisz and Javier Bardem and is set for a 2012 release.

Filming for “The Tree of Life” was set to begin in March 2008 with Heath Ledger in the lead role and Sean Penn in an important supporting role. Obviously, Ledger had to be replaced because of his death, and Brad Pitt ended up as the choice. Even mainstream moviegoers are surely curious to see Brad Pitt and Sean Penn in the same film, not to mention wonder what Heath Ledger might have done in the lead role.

Working with great directors seems to be of great importance to Pitt as of late. He jumped at the chance to work with the Coen brothers on “Burn After Reading,” starred and helped fund “The Assassination of Jesse James,” because he was so taken with director Andrew Dominik after seeing “Chopper,” and last worked with David Fincher in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” and now has joined forces with Malick.

Malick wisely brought back cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki after working together on “The New World.” Not only did Lubezki receive an Oscar nomination for “The New World,” but he also had received three cinematography nominations previously, some for his widely acclaimed work on “Children of Men.” Malick has always been known for the beauty of his films.

At the 2010 American Film Market, Malick had a written statement on the film: “We trace the evolution of an eleven-year-old boy in the Midwest, JACK, one of three brothers… The picture darkens as he has his first glimpses of sickness, suffering and death. The world, once a thing of glory, becomes a labyrinth.” Details on “The Tree of Life” have been kept tight-lipped. With less than two months to go, we’ll soon know more.