Malick Stumbles

Rating: 6/10 (30 January 2006)

It gives me no pleasure to report that the fourth film in nearly eight times as many years from that most roguish of Hollywood's rogue directors, Terrence Malick, is mostly a failure. Give the guy a break, though. When the first three movies you make are unequivocal masterpieces, you're allowed to stumble.
All of the devices Malick has employed in previous films to turn what would be sweeping epics in the hands of any other director into feverish internal character studies are present here. But in "The New World," they curiously have the reverse effect. Instead of drawing us into the minds of his characters, Malick keeps us at a distance, and his film remains too enigmatic for us to fully appreciate.
The biggest problem with this movie is its non-committal tone. According to history (though granted, there are many different accounts of the Pocahontas story), John Smith was pretty much an ass, who left Pocahontas behind because he didn't really want her---in another account, he's forced to leave America because of a severe injury. Malick turns the Smith/Pocahontas story into a star-crossed lover's tale, with Smith the smoldering hero who turns away because he wants to protect Pocahontas from a world that won't accept her. Except that once she is taken in by the colonists, she's treated just fine, which makes one wonder what the big problem was to begin with. Malick uses his usual ruminating voice overs to draw us into the minds of Smith and Pocahontas, but this time around their thoughts don't communicate anything of much importance.
Malick's version of the tale feels tidied up and sanitized, lacking in any dramatic conflict. When Smith meets Pocahontas again in England after a long absence, something about their exchange brings closure for her, and she is able to forget Smith and commit herself to her husband and child---but what that something is remains a mystery, for neither the screenplay nor the performances convey it. And Pocahontas's death feels rushed through; surely Malick could have trimmed one or two meandering scenes of tree and sky earlier in the film to give it a better sense of symmetry.
The performances really disappoint too, but I'm not so sure that's the fault of the actors as much as it is the writing. They're not really given robust characters to play, so no one registers all that much, not even Q'orianka Kilcher, who's supposed to be a lifeforce to which everyone is drawn.
"The New World" probably warrants a second look, and I suspect I may come away admiring it more after I see it again. Malick's films aren't easy, and that's what I like about them. It's just that he's been on such firmer ground before that this movie fell way below my expectations. Immediately after leaving the theatre after seeing "The Thin Red Line," I knew that I had just witnessed a masterpiece in real time. Leaving the theatre after "The New World," I knew that I was just leaving.
Grade: C