Beguiling "New World" from a masterful Malick

Rating: 8/10 (23 January 2006)

THE NEW WORLD (2005) *** Colin Farrell, Q'Orianka Kilcher, Christopher Plummer, Christian Bale. Wes Studi, Noah Taylor, David Thewlis.
Beguiling "New World" from a masterful Malick
Filmmaker Terrence Malick may have only given us three previous films in twenty-five years but his skill has not diminished in his fourth big screen mini- epic about the colonization of America in the 17th century with a beguiling bold look and an unerring eye in capturing natural beauty.
Depicting the somewhat mythic lore of first European settlements of Captain John Smith and his romantic rendezvous with the Native American squaw Pocahontas has been told and re-told throughout generations but never before has there been the scent of ambiguity and awkwardness then now.
Smith (a somewhat subdued Farrell) and his gaggle of men arrive to the new alien landscape of wooded climes and the indigenous peoples slowly come about to make their presence known as they greet the foreigners at first gingerly and eventually with trepidation and finally brutality. Along the way Smith, originally earmarked for a hanging due to his mutinous thoughts, is given clemency by his superior, Captain Christopher Newport (Plummer providing the gravitas necessary for the proceedings at hand) whose no-nonsense demeanor belies a sense of entitlement for their homeland. Smith is volunteered to go to the natives to gain enough knowledge to help his people get acclimated to the unknown world before them.
Along the way Smith is at first harshly met with a beating and is bound for death until the aforementioned young girl Pocahontas (ethereal newcomer Kilcher in a very natural acting film debut) 'saves' Smith to call her own. The two begin gingerly to explore a new found relationship with Smith being extra careful not to lead the beguiling teen in the wrong direction. She in turn begins to learn English and provide him with help as he returns to the fort with a rough winter ahead (she returns with food and provisions).
Naturally the men are reluctant to follow Smith's newly appointed leadership that ultimately betrays him sending him into an exiled journey north commissioned by Newport to discover new lands. Smith is bitterly disappointed but realizes it is a fools' paradise to think his love for Pocahontas, although pure, would ever last with the scrutiny their separate worlds would attract.
Pocahontas is summarily also forced out of her tribe when her beloved father is incensed that she chose a white man over her own people forcing her to relocate permanently among the pioneers where she is accepted with caution yet eventually becomes one of them. Along the way she encounters John Rolfe (a nice turn by Bale), a gentlemanly tobacco farmer who is smitten by the innocent; they fall in love raising a family and are subsequently invited back to England to meet an audience with the royal family.
Malick's knack for creating a familiar environ with an otherworldly dream-state narrative is on full display here and his trademark narrations seep in smoothly as does his eye for wonderful detail particularly the natural surroundings (a rush of water along the river bank; a daddy-long-leg making its rounds; a burst of marmalade sunshine) - thanks largely to the exquisite canvas provided by cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki and atmospheric score by James Horner underlining the theme of alien in an alien world - mixes perfectly to the storyline but is only marred in its somewhat funereal pacing and drained of emotion acting (almost all the actors appear to be aware of every word they are annunciating with a trace of trepidation). However Kilcher is worth the price of admission for her naÃ¯ve native with her girlish smile and quiet moments of contemplation into what the price she is paying to be someone else is almost heartbreaking in her delivery. A fine debut indeed.