Discerning the storyline on Terrence Malick's 'The Tree of Life' is turning into the same parlor game for cinephiles as guessing details about "The Avengers" has become for fanboys. Instead of using costume choices to divine meaning on superhero mythology, Malick fans are trying to decide what interviews with members of the cast and crew tell us about characters' ontological struggles, or whether the film will echo the themes of "Badlands" or "Days of Heaven." (Hey, they're cinephiles.)

What we do know: Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain play a mid-century couple. They have kids, and one of them struggles to adulthood, eventually growing up to be Sean Penn. But that's about it.

A press release from distributor Fox Searchlight two weeks ago didn't cast much light. The movie, it said, "is the impressionistic story of a Midwestern family in the 1950’s chronicling the journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years – trying to reconcile the 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."

Well, that about describes many of us, at least sometime midway through sophomore year of college.  And so we still wonder -- what is it that actually happens in the film?

We caught up with Chastain last week, right after the actress began earning raves for her performance in Toronto film "The Debt," to see if she might be able to offer more clues. "I'm not sure what I can say," she began when we raised the subject. But then she did indeed say a few things.

The actress said the movie was essentially about the conflict between "nature and grace" -- which she defined as the conflict between a spiritual life and one of more primitive survival. Her character represents the former, while Pitt's stands for the latter. "And the children have to decide which path they want to take," she said.

She also said that Malick was taking a casual approach to the script. If there were seven pages of dialogue, and she didn't recall all of them, Malick would tell her to "just say what you remember."

Fidelity to Malick's script, or the absence thereof, was a theme on the set of the 2008 shoot. As Malick was casting the children in the movie, Chastain pointed out that a particular actor wouldn't work because the script called for a 5-year-old and the kid in question was too old. Malick's casual response: "Oh, Jessica, no one reads the script."

-- Steven Zeitchik

http://twitter.com/ZeitchikLAT

Photo: Terrence Malick. Credit: Getty Images

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Fox Searchlight grabbed some thunder north of the border with the announcement today that it had acquired rights to the Terrence Malick movie -- it of the endless postproduction tweaks and Brad Pitt and Sean Penn performances, a tour-de-but-what-the-heck-is-it-about -- from a battered and now apparently unraveled Apparition.

The distribution of the film through the Bill Pohlad entity was in doubt ever since Bob Berney left Apparition in May, and its ultimate owner was a question mark. Searchlight coming on gives it a serious boost.

With a boost comes a downer, though: Searchlight is well-stocked on the 2010 awards front, so the company won't release "Tree of Life" until 2011 (and, if we had to guess, given the specialized subject matter, later in the year). Then again, given how long Malick's been fiddling with the film -- and given how the speculation that it could show up at this year's Cannes was quashed -- 2011 isn't that far off.

But as long as we're reading tea leaves, Searchlight has a history of working with auteurs -- it has Danny Boyle and Darren Aronofsky, among others, here in Canada -- but there's typically a commercial undercurrent to many of their pickups. So maybe "Tree of Life" will be a little more dramatically paced than "The New World." One can hope.

--Steven Zeitchik, reporting from Toronto

Twitter.com/ZeitchikLAT

Photo: Terrence Malick. Credit: Getty Images

Terrence Malick is still editing, tweaking, adjusting and otherwise fiddling with his latest movie, the Sean Penn-Brad Pitt tour de but-what-the-heck-is-it-actually-about "Tree of Life." But apparently the meticulous auteur already has an eye outside the editing room and on the set of his next film. So much for those 20-year hiatuses.

According to the company selling said project at the Berlin Film Festival, Malick will in the fall begin shooting an untitled picture, described by said company simply as a "romantic drama" and a "powerful and moving love story" (elaborate detail by Malickian standards, actually). As he did for "Tree," Malick has lined up a top-tier cast; this one includes Christian Bale and Javier Bardem (and also features Bond Girl Olga Kurylenko and Holmes girl Rachel McAdams), it was revealed today.

Film Nation, the startup sales and financing company from former Weinstein Company executive Glen Basner, is financing and selling the project, while Bill Pohlad, whose River Road is behind "Tree of Life," is among the producers.

Given Malick's famously slow work pace -- he went silent between "Days of Heaven in 1978 and "The Thin Red Line" in 1998 and has been editing and reediting "Tree of Life" for some time -- the new romance should probably hit sometime in 2019. But maybe the best news about the fall start date for the new film is that it means that "Tree of Life" -- a movie about a Midwestern boy's journey, according to a thousand read tea leaves -- is actually close to completion. That is, until the director goes back to prune more branches.

-- Steven Zeitchik