A grainy bootleg copy has been bouncing around the net for the last couple of weeks, but the real thing – the long anticipated trailer for The Tree of Life – was released this morning.

The Tree of Life is the impressionistic story of a Midwestern family in the 1950?s. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father. Jack finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith.

It’s pure Oscar bait from the man I think is one of the greatest (certainly the most enigmatic) living film directors of our time, Terrence Malick. The reclusive savant did Badlands in 1973, Days of Heaven in 1978 (in a class by itself) and then took some 20 years off before returning with the superb epic on Guadalcanal, The Thin Red Line.

The Tree of Life, which stars Sean Penn, Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain, is due at the end of May.