'The Tree of Life' tops at Cannes 2011... despite that whole booing thing

Cannes 2011 has not been uneventful. There were boos, (possibly) new celebrity couples and apparent Nazi sympathizing that got directors booted from the film festival. But now it's over. And a clear victor has emerged.

"The Tree of Life," the the ambitious, generation-spanning film starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, took home the festival's most coveted prize on May 22, the prestigious Palme d'Or.

That's not to say the film hasn't received an overwhelmingly positive welcome. The first screening received the previously-mentioned boos. But with less than a week before it's U.S. theatrical release, "The Tree of Life" seems to be doing quite well with critics. Review aggregates Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes have the film scoring a 93 (out of 100) and a 90 percent, respectively.

The film, directed by Terrence Malick ("The Thin Red Line"), tells the "impressionistic" story of a Midwestern family, starting with the father (Pitt) in the 1950s and ending with the son (Penn), at present time. Oh, and there's apparently some crazy flashbacks to the dawn of the universe, complete with dinosaurs.

"The Tree of Life" starts in limited release May 27. Will you go?