The Hidden Life of Trees Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

The Hidden Life of Trees Blu-ray Movie Review

Based on the poplar book.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III December 2, 2021

Jörg Adolph's The Hidden Life of Trees is more or less a visual representation of German forester Peter Wohlleben's best-selling 2015 novel Das geheime Leben der Bäume (literally translated as this film's title), and both revolve around Wohlleben's claims that forests are sentient communities that feel pain, socialize, and care for their leafy brethren. Not surprisingly, Wohlleben's novel was a lightning rod within scientific circles -- including his fellow foresters -- where some dismissed the findings as completely unsound or, in layman's terms, "a bunch of tree-hugging hippie crap".

Clearly tied to its source material in form and function, The Hidden Life of Trees not only follows the author closely -- over the river, through the woods, at public speaking appearances, and at home -- but literally flips through pages of his book, translating passages word-for-word while pairing them with beautiful montages captured in the surrounding forests. Wohlleben speaks at length in his native German, describing his personal and career path from a nature-loving youth to professional forester who assessed trees for harvesting, later organizing survival training and log cabin tours for tourists and, more recently, managing a diverse forest in the village of Hümmel where his newfound appreciation for forest life began. It's this profound contradiction -- gentle caretaker who recognizes a need for paper products -- that makes Wohlleben a fascinating subject, and one clearly at home among the film's scenic locations, a combination of wide overhead drone shots, nicely-framed landscapes, and patient time-lapse photography.

It's unfortunate, then, that The Hidden Life of Trees suffers from an extremely choppy focus and rarely follows a clear path... unlike the original book, which is told from Wohlleben's singular perspective. This extends to the documentary's presentation, at least for the domestic version seen on MPI's Blu-ray package and several streaming services: all of them feature an odd blend of Wohlleben's thick German dialogue and poorly-recorded English narration that resembles an educational ride at a tourist attraction. This gets old quickly and does the film's overall flow no favors but, like the forest itself, The Hidden Life of Trees itself manages to survive in spite of the clumsy human intervention. And while Wohlleben's overall findings and mission statement still aren't all that convincing in spots. like the source novel this adaptation is still a worthwhile experience based on good intentions alone. Its visuals can be captivating at times and the original score by Franziska Henke pairs nicely; while the spoken material itself doesn't always measure up, it may at least generate thought and discussion about a topic that deeply affects every viewer in some capacity.

As mentioned earlier, MPI's Blu-ray presents the domestic version of this documentary; as far as I know, there are no international home video options available -- just this German trailer. Regardless, it's not exactly an impressive release in any category, from its somewhat flawed 1080p transfer to a near-complete lack of bonus features.

The Hidden Life of Trees Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

MPI's 1080p transfer of The Hidden Life of Trees is a mixed bag, but it's difficult to separate potential disc encoding issues from problems that might be baked in to the source material. For a low-budget and digitally-shot documentary, several moments rival those of much more lavish productions... but compression issues in the form of chunky artifacts, light banding, and mosquito noise distract from what's otherwise a series of well-composed and attractive images. It's not limited to dimly-lit scenes in the dense forest (seen above), either: from tight close-ups to wide shots (below) and occasional drone footage (screenshot #12), these artifacts prove that even a passable image in-motion may not stand up to close scrutiny. It's almost like some sort of waxy filtering may have been applied over the noisier scenes, but this may also just be a byproduct of less-than-optimal recording equipment. Either way, those compression issues are a real head-scratcher: the film should have plenty of room to breathe on this dual-layered disc, but it certainly looks starved at times. Static photographs are also featured occasionally (screenshot #16); these are vividly saturated, framed at their original aspect ratios, and look immediately stronger in direct comparison; the film also makes occasional use of picture-in-picture to display Wohlleben's camera phone footage as he records in the forest. As a whole, again it might look fine in-motion and on smaller displays... but there's clearly room for improvement here.

The Hidden Life of Trees Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio is similarly rough around the edges, but most of its nagging quirks are likely tied to the source material rather than anything else. Much of the on-screen (and mostly German) dialogue -- including the English voice-over narration, which was obviously added for the benefit of American audiences and suffers from light amounts of gauzy distortion -- seems to have been recorded in mono and is thus limited to the front channel, while music cues and other background effects are are more expansive and discrete in comparison. This gives the production a slightly patchwork quality that, while a little distracting at first, feels more natural as the film goes on. I doubt there's much that could've been done to smooth over these issues, so it's hard to be too critical of the disc in this regard.

Two sets of optional subtitles are provided for the main feature: the default is standard English for German dialogue translation, but we also get a full English SDH track that identifies all speakers and languages. This means, of course, that those fluent in both German and English can turn off the subtitles entirely, which is a nice touch.

The Hidden Life of Trees Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a standard keepcase with attractive cover artwork and a nice inner print with no inserts of any kind. On-disc bonus features are minimal -- and though documentaries rarely feature loads of supplements, a few deleted scenes or some behind-the-scenes footage would've been more than welcome.

• Theatrical Trailer (1:44) - This promotional piece can also be seen here. It's a bit misleading as the trailer not only implies that this film is entirely in English, but it presents a much more streamlined and accessible film than what we actually get. (The trailer included on the Blu-ray is also at least 15 dB louder than what I would consider a normal listening level, so do yourself a favor and turn down the volume in advance.)

The Hidden Life of Trees Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Another clear case of "the book was better than the film", Jörg Adolph's The Hidden Life of Trees struggles to maintain focus as it presents the mission of German forester (and original author) Peter Wohlleben. And while it certainly has noble intentions and can be quite compelling at times --- which obviously extends to the visuals -- most audiences will still get more out of Wohlleben's unfiltered source novel. The film's patchwork qualities extend to MPI's Blu-ray as well, which serves up a questionable 1080p transfer and lossless audio that does what it can with limited source material. Add in an near-complete lack of bonus features and you've got a textbook example of "try before you buy".