Has its moments, but...

Rating: 6/10 (10 December 2005)

I loved "The Thin Red Line" as well as Terrence Malick's earlier movies, and "The New World," which I saw tonight at a guild screening, is very similar in style to "The Thin Red Line." It is intensely visual, with many wordless sequences, and uses interior monologues/voice-over from several characters. Also like "The Thin Red Line," it creates a tapestry of nature and the elements to define its characters. The landscape, rivers, fields and forests are very much prominent characters here. The film is at times utterly mesmerizing and captivating on a visual level. However, it saddens me to say that overall, "The New World" just isn't THAT emotionally involving. At 2.5 hours, it's long. And what's worse, it feels it.
The cast does a fine job, and Q'orianka Kilcher is especially talented (and lovely), but the script isn't as strong or as focused as it needed to be. Still, I admired several sequences of powerfully visual storytelling, especially those depicting the lives of the native Americans, so in the end I would have to call my opinion mixed.