Beautiful, Powerful, Unexpected

Rating: 10/10 (28 January 2006)

I saw it last Tuesday night, after a hectic, long and stressful day where all I hoped for was some mindless entertainment. It was not a movie I would have chosen, but a couple of friends suggested it. What it turned out to be was totally unexpected.
It has Colin Farrell, Christian Bale, and a girl named Q'Orianka Kilcher who was only 14 when this movie is made and totally blows me away with her depth and grace. The story is another telling of Pocahontas and John Smith, with a new character (historically accurate, I think), John Rolfe (Christian Bale). What is so surprising about this movie - over 2 hours long - is that there is more dialog in a half-hour sitcom than in this movie. But I came away from it more moved and touched - not in a darling, maternal way but in a truly changed, effected way - than I have from any movie that I can think of. Farrell, Bale, and this incredible girl were so utterly convincing in their facial expressions, gestures, and other silent communications - in addition to some dialog and voice-overs, of course, it's not a silent film :o) - that I was deeply drawn in and find that it still is affecting me today. I'd want you to know going into it that it is far from a conventional film so if you're like me you might squirm through the first while as your expectations get shifted. But hang in there - it is SO worth it.