THE NEW WASTE OF TIME -- Malick = Dangerous Filmmaker

Rating: 2/10 (30 January 2006)

I'm not sure exactly what it is people fall for about this movie, but they are being duped. Last night, at least 13 people (grown people) walked out on this film before it ended. I would have walked out as well, but I wanted to see the credits to see who exactly was responsible for making this film.
The only way I can describe this film experience is TOTALLY DISENGAGING. Malick takes one of the most romantic stories in American History and turns it into this fluttering and extremely sporadic, on some levels confusing melodrama which leaves you wondering by the end "WHO CARES"?. A filmmaker is supposed to engage the viewer through the tools in his arsenal, Malick pushes me away, he breaks off the engagement very early on (the opening credits actually). But to say that this movie confused me is to say I lack the mental capacity to understand what's going on. This is not true, I know exactly what was going on, but Malick's directing style miserably failed me on this, at every turn when he is able to give the viewer a little information, he does not, his characters remain silent, they act with little or no motive and events happen without you knowing they happened until it is over (I won't get specific). HE IS ALL OVER THE PLACE! I'm not one to "disrespect" another filmmaker's style, but in this case, Malick lacks any sense of how to shoot a movie that doesn't make someone want to vomit. YES VOMIT, and not figuratively. Within the first ten minutes of the film I realized WOW this guy doesn't like to use a tripod: EVERY single shot save maybe 2% is shot hand-held... Working with a few million dollars in his budget, I'm not sure what made him not want to use a few thousand dollar tripod and/or more tracking shots that wouldn't make the frame jump around uncontrollably, confusing "my eye" so much that I just wanted to shut them.
Yes, maybe he is trying to instill an uneasy feeling in us by not letting the camera rest steadily, but once and a while PLEASE put the camera down and give our eyes a rest! Where did you go to film school Malick? This is elementary.
The way this film was shot is nothing less than infantile; Malick has a very immature sense of how to take all the shots of his film, put them together, and make something that is both A) Interesting and B) Understandable in the sense that his characters actually have a story a viewer can follow, let alone care about. In that sense, the film lacks a tremendous amount of depth, John Smith comes to Jamestown, falls in love with Pocahontas, the natives want them to leave. Very little else happens in this film that provides any amount of texture or depth on top of (or beneath) the love story. His shot selection goes ALL OVER THE PLACE, using jump cuts where they really aren't needed, going back and forth through time, having Collin Farrell randomly walking through the woods over 4 dozen times. that's about 50 times! Are you ready to see Collin Farrell walk aimlessly through woods for 30 minutes of your day? I wasn't.
I think there were MANY people who saw the coming attractions and trailers for this and were impressed, me being one of them. This is why I feel so very cheated after actually spending money on this; Malick literally failed us on this one and IF he put as much thought and time into making the film as they did the commercials for it, they would have had a film that would have stood the test of time. As is, they are lucky if this movie doesn't go straight to HBO this summer.
Oh and THE most annoying part of the experience, for a film which boasts having its own score, they choose to play Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 23 4 times!!! Can you imagine if in GREASE we had to watch John and Olivia sing "YOU're THE ONE THAT I WANT" four whole times? It would be unheard of, and by the end of the film when they play it one last time I was ready to walk out of the theater in disgust.
The only part I thought was innovative was how Wes Studi becomes the explorer for his people in "his" new world (England), which was John Smith's old world. It's an interesting trade off that Wes Studi (excellent actor) makes come alive very well, perhaps the first and last bit of depth Malick gives this film.
And please, don't think my scorn for this film is unwarranted, I gave this movie MANY chances and Malick fails to deliver on all levels. If you enjoyed this movie you are the type of person who thinks COLD MOUNTAIN is a great film, right?