Just above is the first look at Matthew McConaughey and Ken Watanabe in Gus Van Sant‘s latest directorial outing, The Sea of Trees a film that follows Arthur Brennan (McConaughey) as he treks into the infamous “Suicide Forest” at the foothills of Mount Fuji with the intention of taking his own life. When he is interrupted by a Japanese man who has had second thoughts about his own suicide, and is trying to find his way out of the forest, the two begin a journey of reflection and survival.
Having found the perfect place to die, Arthur encounters Takumi Nakamura (Watanabe), a Japanese man who has also lost his way. The two men begin a journey of reflection and survival, which affirms Arthur’s will to live and reconnects him to his love with his wife (Naomi Watts).
Speaking with EW, McConaughey said of the film, “I say another title for this film is ‘You’ve got to go through annihilation to get to salvation’. It’s one hell of a survival story.”
The film is still without a distributor and currently shooting in rural Massachusetts, but once it’s released McConaughey seems confident it will have quite an effect on the audience. “Everyone is going to leave the theater and have their own walk and talk through the parking lot to muse about its meanings,” he said, “[wondering] what it was about and what it wasn’t, what was real and what was a dream.”
