Malick's wonderful visual poetry with unsatisfying script

Rating: Null/10 (5 November 2006)

Reading the reviews describing this movie clearly reveals that it was badly marketed. Perhaps it needed to be. However it is intriguing how far people's expectations differed from the actual film. I would have assumed that Malick was enough of an auteur for most people to know what they were expecting. Evidently not; his name doesn't seem to appear on the cover of my DVD...
Badlands, Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line are amongst the most important cinematic treats out there, so why is this only an 8 out of 10 film? Well, strangely, The New World appears as both his most compromised and his most meandering work. Not a good mix, especially for the *ahem* "average" cinema goer. The seemingly compromised element, in my opinion, lies in the rating. Malick's magic rawness is just a little too timid here. The film simply isn't as terrifying in its depiction of violence and deprivation as it needs to be. Also the softly-softly-she's-underage approach to the central love affair doesn't have very far to go after the initial electrifying encounters.
The meandering is not a problem for anyone with half a brain. It's just not quite as satisfying a narrative as it could have been. The way Malick has explored themes in previous films is what makes him a genuine artist. Here that approach starts slowly and doesn't quite hit his previous highwater mark.
Malick's use of editing, almost as prose uses tenses, was first really started in Days of Heaven. By The Thin Red Line the juxtapositions this effect created made for stunning, eloquent cinema. Here, though, they serve to muddle character motivations. You could blame Colin Farrell for not giving enough but I think he does a very solid job. No, I think this is just a plain script issue. A script that might have been well served by a touch more intention.
However, there are moments in this film that, unless you're braindead or have no soul, will catch your breath at their beauty. This isn't some wry, overly intellectual piece of art; no this is straight to the gut, sobbing like a baby art. The genuinely magical interaction between light, sound, music and performance is as haunting as ever. Q'Oriaanka Kilcher delivers something amazing here; fresh with amazing innocence and deep, knowing sorrow. Farrell conveys a similar depth of joy and sadness that really makes their love believable.
Malick's The New World is that rare cinema treat: art made at a Hollywood budget and it deserves to be seen for that alone, even though it is not his most satisfying work. The story simply muddles character motivation instead of complicating it. If you're willing to exchange that for a sensitive collection of poetic moments you'll be happy. If not do not see it. Simple as.
It is sad that so many people hate it, quite what they expected I don't know. An action epic with goodies and baddies? Surely not... No one's that stupid... Are they?