This Terrence Malick film is hailed as either boring, or a transcendent masterpiece. We found it neither in particular, but rather a solid, fitfully thoughtful, interesting if never quite asending film.
The shots of nature are wonderful, and the best thing about it. Perhaps it would be even better on the big screen, able to daw one further into the forest atmosphere. As it was we enjoyed the running water, the beautiful rivers. There was great power in the contrast of the natural world with the settlers' arid wastelands. Perhaps the most effective moments linearly were when our heroine was being straightjacketed, almost literally, into the artifical and dirty ways of the English.
The performance of the female lead, whose true name is presumably 'Pocahontas', is indeed terrific. She is natural enough for her beauty not to be an obstacle. Colin Farrell does rather a lot of low-brows glowering, but both he and Christian Bale just about hold up their side of the bargain.
We were constantly waiting for this film to take off. Not that it is slow or boring, or aimless, but rather that it never quite turns the booster-engines on. Perhaps this, on a fifty foot screen, would have been provided by the sounds and colours of the forest. As it is we saw a good film, but one unlikely to affect our futures greatly.
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