Meandering nature sucks life out of movie

Rating: 5/10 (5 May 2006)

I have great appreciation for writer/director Terrence Malick's personal philosophy when it comes to film making, having a hard time rating such a sensual director as merely average. The artist's approach at capturing a moment rather then commanding it often times has paid off with sincerely improvised performances and camera-work. However with The New World, this film-making philosophy has unwittingly reared it's pretentious, over-bloated head and seemingly bludgeoned it's powerful themes to death. It is truly a lack of substance in the script that further renders the too many "busy shots" shallow in context with a film that failed to keep me interested in the characters with it's meandering, self righteous narration and over zealous score. Malick's direction works best at first, before his thoughtful tone poems turn into gimmick. At the heart of the truth from this movie, there are many lush moments of photographic grandeur to behold of the purity of our earth, and those that strive to live in harmony with it, in part articulated by Kilcher's spiritual performance. As this New World is initially being explored by Farrel and viewer, the obvious reverence for the land Malick tries to induce does shine through, although once this theme is established this exercise feels routine. It is in the developing plot, or lack thereof that the film fails to accentuate it's beautifully shot, stream-of-consciousness homage to the source material. For some reason, Malick's work somehow seems a little too self important for it's own good.