A beautiful film.

Rating: 8/10 (13 November 2008)

As with other Terrence Malick films, this broody lingering drama improves as time passes after you watch it. On initial thoughts i wasn't too impressed with the movie because i thought it too slow. After a few hours when the film had finished i found myself reveling in how beautiful and how understated this film really is. The long establishing shots are meaningful and used to great affect for this epic love tale.
Don't expect a formulaic heart wrenching romance at the center of this movie as it will disappoint. It is replaced by a truly heartfelt deeper than words relationship established through gestures and actions, it is truly wondrous.
Colin Farrell is subtly commanding as John Smith, showing that his performances have aged beyond blockbusters. All the actors do an extremely good job considering the amount of dialogue in this film as it is used sparely. This film is just short of completely breath taking. It is not quite a masterpiece, but a film very much to be proud of.