Sunday: 22.January.2006

The New World - A Rad Film / Movie Review

Saw The New World yesterday, at the Big Newport (Newport Beach). The theater was comfortably full.

A retelling of the fabled love story between Pocahontas & Capt. John Smith .. set in the the new world (Virginia, 1607) when European culture first encountered the native American indians living there. I very much enjoyed it.

Easy for this kind of movie (love story) to get corny, but the director did a good job (excellent job) of keeping it understated and even poetic.

I appreciate the subtleties of understated storytelling. The flip-side is that some might find the story slow. But love stories are all about undercurrents. And either you relate or you don't.

••• continued •••

I'm guessing this is the reason the film received mixed reviews. Because it's really a very poetic film. (Not everyone enjoys poetry.)

Colin Farrell did a surprisingly good job in this restrained role, displaying real talent. So did the girl who played opposite him. Good chemistry between them. Her smiles lit up the whole screen. The story is really about her.

As you might expect, the film runs the gamut of emotions, from the surreal bliss of love to the inconsolable agony of heartbreak. Conspicuously noticeable were the lack of sex scenes, or any hint thereof.

Also of note was how the native way of living in *concert* with nature seemed so much healthier than the European method of trying to dominate it ("first thing we'll do is chop down all these trees...").

Reminds me of the Eagles' song, The Last Resort, which ends with the verse, You call someplace paradise, kiss it goodbye.

The New World is a good escapist movie, for those who (like me) might find themselves in (yet another) trying predicament. For a few precious hours, you can be whisked away .. to another world, another time, so completely that you forget about your misfortunes, your own dramas. And isn't that what the movies are really all about?

For more info along these lines, here's a Google search pre-configured for the query-string:> the new world film movie review





Posted by Rad at January 22, 2006 01:07 PM

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