First contact with 'aliens'--whether they are native Americans or the English--can be a shock.

Rating: 7/10 (21 January 2006)

In this stunningly filmed movie, we see the naturals (as the British settlers call them) before we see the sailing ships-- like three large, strange birds settled on wooden nests-- sail into Chesapeake Bay. Even before they have seen the ships and been stunned by that sight, the natives are as silent as if they are part of a tribe of mutes. We feel fear on their part. Little do they know who and what fate is sailing into their peaceful kingdom---but we know. We already know the history, sort of.
As played by Colin Farrell, John Smith, the hero, looks so excessively hairy and dirty in contrast to the almost hairless Indians that he seems the one who is primitive, a throw-back to some Cro-Magnon, perhaps. All right, we think; he's just made a trip across the ocean; they must all be a mess. Yet we can't help noticing that Christopher Plummer looks reasonably neat and well-groomed as the President of the Virginia Company, right from the moment he steps off the ship.
Farrell doesn't clean up on shore, either. He shows no sign of the kind of energy or intelligence that would suggest him capable of such disobedience as mutiny. He has no swagger, no spirit. As well, he looks so morose, even after he is spared from hanging, that his heavy eyebrows threaten to consume the entire film.
In voice-overs he says that he will let this new world be a new beginning for him, but he never looks hopeful. And when he speaks, it is in an interior monologue that sounds taken from his later journals, and is so mumbled that we can hardly hear what he says. Surely this role has been terribly miscast.. Later, when Christian Bale appears later as one of the second batch of English settlers, looking clean and handsome, and smiling tenderly at Pocahantas, should we really be wondering what she could have possibly seen in Smith? Or why Bale wasn't the one cast as Smith?
As played by Native American Q'Orianka Killich, Pocahantas strikes us as quite wonderful, a still, gentle and yet playful child of nature. Her face, which we see a lot of in this slow, meditative film, can look like something carved by the Incas when she is pensive, yet can look completely North American when she smiles and laughs in play. Her gestures are graceful, and her dignity gives new meaning to the phrase 'noble savage'.
Smith's infatuation with her is understandable, but as played by Farrell, it's as if he has gone from morose to lovesick with no suggestion that he has other moods, or any other personality. We see a few minutes in which he teaches her a few words of English, but that lesson is initiated by her, and he hardly seems to have enough concentration to take part in it. Nor does he seem at all interested in learning her language. It is a shock, not soon after, then, to hear her speak perfect English, and see him supposedly understanding what her father has to say to him. When did they have time to learn verbs, much less full sentences, of each other's languages? All they've been doing is drifting around looking at each other.
When he's not with her, Farrell/Smith keeps the same lovesick expression, even upon returning to the primitive Jamestown, which seems all the more primitive after our seeing the simple but well settled Indian camp. He does little to help the starving men: doesn't suggest that they might fish in the river, or hunt in the forest full of game. Nothing has been planted, or hunted. We wonder: were the English really this unprepared to make a settlement? Why?
The film's dialog doesn't tell us any more than that the men sent along on this expedition weren't 'very good.' And meanwhile, Smith, who been described by the President of the Company as a natural leader, just looks away from the mess with an expression that suggests he has a bad case of gas.No doubt he's supposed to be disgusted by the contrast between the Indian's ingenuity in survival and his own compatriot's, but he just looks as if he's thinking of his new Indian friend. More dialog is needed here; the script has failed both the actors and us.
The film still succeeds as a still, meditative piece, reminiscent of both 'Elvira Madigan' and 'Dances With Wolves'. The score here is beautiful, with haunting use of the prelude to Wagner's 'Rhinegold' to suggest the rich beauty of this world into which the settlers are sailing.
All in all, the film is so slow and gentle that it casts its spell over us, a spell that lasts for several hours after the credits have rolled. And yet I'll bet many viewers will run home and Google both Pocahantas and John Smith to learn the truth about their relationship: was it chaste or not? And they may also want to try to determine why on earth Farrell was chosen for this part. He, and the slow pace of this film will, I think, make it one a film that does not thrive by word of mouth advertisement.