Balancing the Story with the Art

I'm currently writing a manuscript that spans a great many of years. It's been difficult deciding what to include, which scenes to better hash out. How much character development/relationship should be the focus, how many philosophical discussions? And when and where to include my troubling scenarios to really up the stakes? I'm struggling with these questions, trying to formulate the best way to tell the story, concerned by the fact that I have the bones/gist of the story with only 30,000 words. I need the story to come to alive, resonate with my audience, but deciding which scenes to include can be tough.

I just watched a film with my family, The Tree of Life starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn. For those of you who've watched this particular movie, you might be laughing because it's about as out there as you can get. This is a critically acclaimed movie. Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 84% rating, so I expected it to be good. And it is--it's incredible in so many ways. The visuals are so breathtaking, the music overwhelming. And I can't really write a coherent review of the film because 1) I watched it while severely sleep deprived and 2) I missed the last twenty minutes. But a few things can be said. First, it spans many, many years. The story focuses on a boy's life and death, but the writers chose to include not only his life, but the creation of the world and even shows clips of dinosaurs (a great deal of symbolism in this film). It's slow moving, and abstract in so many ways, and I was just getting lolled to sleep when I heard one of the most breathtaking songs of my life, which quickly woke me up until I had to help my baby at the end.

But story-wise, at least for me, this film fails to connect with the lay audience, undertaking too many years, focusing so much on the beauty and less on an identifiable, powerful plot that the story falls flat. It does what I don't want my current story to do: overwhelms the audience with large-scope concepts that we're left emotionally bereft.

When I asked my sister how the movie ended, she said, "Uhh. I was trying to think how I would answer you when you asked that. Not much. Sean Penn walked around a lot." (He did that in the beginning, too. Great architectural shots.)

So I hope to write a memorable/relatable story amidst the beauty in my current piece of art. Anyone else see this film? Care to dissent from my assertions, dazzle me with your refined tastes?