Lovely to look at but so totally frustrating to watch

Rating: 4/10 (16 November 2006)

I wanted to like this movie. I am a huge fan of Badlands, one of my top three movies of all time . Days of Heaven gets easily into the top 20 but The New World is just beyond my capacity to endure. It looks fabulous... The scenery... the sets...but the dreary mumbling voice-overs that repeat endlessly and sometimes become almost inaudible. What is Colin Farrell saying half the time? This is miles from the Holly voice over in Badlands. The lack of structure to the narrative, the way it jump-cuts like Goddard and moves a a second through time and space to the detriment of our understanding is very irritating. Which is all a real shame as Terence Mallick is a genius - Bandlands proves that beyond doubt. I just cannot take to this latest work. Even the soundtrack, previously something of a Mallick trademark in it's stunning choice and application, is frankly boring in this movie. A million miles from his other work. Sorry but I just don't like this one at all.