The New World is a beautiful and lyrical film that enchants you from beginning to end. With stunning visuals and gentle sound, the film takes you back to the first steps of a nation’s founding. You might even call it a masterpiece…unless you’re a fan of story.

To the right you can clearly see what this entire film is all about - namely, the romance between Pocahontas and Captain John Smith. This is great for those of us who long for films that give us a well-developed heartline in addition to a compelling headline.

But the logical objective perspective is nowhere to be found.

This is an unusual path for a film to take and in my belief, is the number one reason why most people will say “It was boring” or “Nothing happened.” Its almost as if you’re waiting for something grandiose to happen, some deeper meaning, that just never arrives.

In most films today, we usually we get 75% Overall Story, 15% Main Character, and if we’re lucky there might be the hint of an Impact Character or a Relationship Throughline. But in The New World, the ratio is almost 90 to 10 in favor of the Relationship Throughline. In a stunning display, the objective overall plot is relegated to the role of story leftovers.

In addition to the romance, there is also significant time spent on the Main Character storyline. The only problem is that it keeps switching from Pocahontas to John Smith. While at first I felt like I was empathizing most with Colin Farrell’s John Smith, I eventually came to emote more with Q’Orianka Kilcher’s Pocahontas.

Terrence Malick seems to be more enthralled with these parts of a story. He did this earlier in The Thin Red Line. While he focused there too on his main characters and their relationships with others, there was also a goodly amount of focus placed on the invasion of Guadalcanal. While not as successful a story as I thought that one could’ve been, it seemed to me to have a better balance of story lines than The New World.

Every scene that Christopher Plummer arrives in just begs for some kind of plot development. Instead, he rifles off some commands and then returns home to England. While this may be historically accurate, its very disappointing for an audience waiting for a story to start.

Plot is relegated to the role of story leftovers

Consequently, with no main plot line there is no limit to the story - no end in sight. While I can’t stress enough how much I loved the visuals and the sound (even a James Horner score that wasn’t a complete ripoff of something he’s done in the past - well, maybe the love theme was a note for note ripoff of Braveheart, but I digress) I still found myself questioning “When is this ever going to end?!” At least in The Thin Red Line, you knew there was an ending in sight - when the Americans secure the island. But this film doesn’t even bother.

This is very unusual for most modern films today and speaks volumes of why I believe this film was not as popular as it could’ve been (not that Terrence Malick was seeking popularity!).

The New World is more of a tale than a grand argument story. The message that Pocahontas “learns” through her journey, that family is the reason for the season, can be absorbed by simply watching the opening scene and then skipping forward to the ending scene. The middle stuff obviously leads her there, but does not provide a compelling argument as to why she learns that message.

Still, it’s a beautiful tale that will find a permanent home in my media center.

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• Using Dramatica to Craft a Story→