It was filmed in the small town of Boonah[2] in Queensland, Australia, and follows the lives of Dawn (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and her four children after the unexpected death of her husband Peter (Aden Young).

But the close bond between mother and Simone forged through a mutual sorrow and shared secret, is threatened by the arrival of George, the plumber, called in to remove the tree's troublesome roots.

As the relationship between Dawn and George blossoms, the tree continues to grow, with its branches infiltrating the house, its roots destroying the foundations.

The site's consensus reads: "Though it leans rather heavily on its central metaphor, The Tree is a moving and ultimately hopeful meditation on grief with shades of magical realism".

[10] Sheri Linden of the Los Angeles Times praised Bertuccelli's directing for its use of "the scrubbed topography of Queensland, Australia", adding that "her mystical symbols can be as on-the-nose as her dialogue".

[11] A similar praise also came from Patrick Peters of Empire who called the film "An eerie and unsettling adaptation of Judy Pascoe's novel that impresses more for its atmospherics than its narrative".

[12] Critics such as Michael O'Sullivan of The Washington Post called The Tree "not exactly subtle",[13] while Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle said that "It's simply vagueness".

[14] According to Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian "The imagery is almost unendurably self-conscious, and Gainsbourg, with her low, musical, murmuring voice, gives the kind of performance you suspect she can do standing on her head.