When I watched The Tree of Life, I felt like I was watching a National Geographic special that was spliced together with the home movies of a dysfunctional family. Some information was missing which detracted from my ability to follow the narrative, like which son died and how, and when. At first it seemed like one of the young boys died by drowning, but then a voice over clip says "My brother was 19 when he died." Then after reading the review mentioned in this thread, I realized which brother it was, but the film leaves out the how and why.
I also thought that I was missing the biblical references as I am unfamiliar with the Book of Job that gets quoted in the beginning.
I felt the flow of the movie was interrupted by the long scenes of the nature of the earth and it's cycles, even though most of that was beautiful to watch, it felt like an LSD sequence. The scenes of the boys running wild through nature and playing in abandoned houses were exceptionally well done and very evocative of the time period. I played in abandoned homes and factories as a kid.
I felt that the CGI dinosaur scenes were trying too hard, and were distracting to the story.
I enjoyed this film, and felt it really pushed the viewer to pay attention, yet, I think the film would have benefited by a bit more editing. I liked the heavenly beach scene with it's reunions.
I wouldn't have found this film without the FOT recommendations here. Thanks everyone!