To the Wonder

TORONTO--The negativity that accompanied Terrence Malick’s  “To the Wonder” at the Venice Film Festival last week was never likely to travel wholesale to Toronto, not with audiences here among the more generous in festivaldom.

Still, when it landed on these shores Monday night, the reaction to the  auteur’s romantic drama, his follow-up to last season’s best picture nominee “The Tree of Life” and first-ever contemporary piece, was restrained to say the least.

Tepid applause followed the screening at the Princess of Wales theatre, a contrast to enthusiastic...