The New World 2005

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: For all its splendor, The New World is really a love affair between Malick and his camera. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: The film, which is superb on every technical and design level, has both greatness and fuzzy-headedness in it. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: The New World laps over its audience like water on a deserted beach, moving so quietly that you almost don't notice that it's enveloped you. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: One of the best movies of the year. Read more

Bob Longino, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The New World is more an ethereal cinematic tone poem than plot-driven story. Read more

Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: There's a problem when the movie about the European conquest of America seems longer than the actual conquest itself. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Self-indulgent, gorgeous, maddening, grueling, ultimately transcendent, it's a Terrence Malick movie all the way, and possibly the director's most sustained work since 1972's Badlands. Read more

Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times: The New World is a work of breathtaking imagination, less a movie than a mode of transport, and in every sense a masterpiece. Read more

Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: Malick is so content to tell the tale through mood that he neglects its meaning. Read more

Paul Clinton (CNN.com), CNN.com: Watching The New World is like watching a snail cross an eight-lane highway. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Malick has a gorgeous talent for capturing supernal landscapes, for conveying their sorrow, and it would be a loss if he stopped directing again at a time when Hollywood is more starved than ever before for the personal touch. Read more

Michael Booth, Denver Post: The New World is a poetic force at once wrenching and soothing. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Many have tried, but none can match Malick's touch for shuffling a deck of elegiac images. Read more

Terry Erb, Detroit Free Press: A movie that is at once prosaic and abstract, breathtakingly beautiful and excruciatingly obvious, compelling contemplative and deadly dull. Read more

Tom Maurstad, Dallas Morning News: It's by no means the longest movie ever made, but it's one of the longest movies ever made in which next to nothing ever happens and barely a word is spoken. Read more

Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly: The New World is a movie less interested in expanding the boundaries of narrative cinema than in forsaking them. Read more

Jan Stuart, Newsday: The New World blows centuries of dust and schoolkid romanticism from the oft-mythologized tale of Pocahontas and the English settlers, relaying old news with an abundantly poetic and visually startling point of view. Read more

David Ansen, Newsweek: These whispered ruminations are beautifully written, but whose voice are we hearing? Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: The movie is verdantly lush, and full of the most marvelous landscapes and images. But there's something missing here. And it's the people. Read more

Jami Bernard, New York Daily News: Malick is a writer-director of extraordinary vision who is like an endangered species. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: In Terrence Malick's elegiac film, Pocahontas is a woman whose story has the reach of myth and the tragic dimension of life. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Malick paints the celluloid like a canvas, filling it with rapturous images of wild America, its flowing fields of grass, rivers teeming with fish and the endless horizon of free land. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: It's a worthy effort, and recommended viewing for those who have interest. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: He [ Terrence Malick] is a visionary, and this story requires one. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Terrence Malick may not care much for people, but he never met a tree he didn't like. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Through elliptical and seemingly oblique methods, he [Malick] forges moments of staggering emotional power. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: The New World isn't Terrence Malick's best, but it's guiding him in the right direction. Read more

Jeff Strickler, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Malick appears to consider this an epic tale, but beyond its 2-hour-plus length, the film never quite reaches the scale he's after. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: A Terence Malick film remains an event, but he appears awfully disoriented in The New World -- less a seasoned traveller than a perplexed tourist, content to mask his confusion by reaching for a camera and snapping relentless pretty pictures. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: He [Malick] swoons for his own well-honed image as a painter of woodland idylls, a man who leaves no sway of wheat or ripple of water unmet by his fatherly gaze. Read more

TIME Magazine: This is no breathless film fantasy; its pulse is stately, contemplative. But anyone who has keen eyes and an open heart will surely go soaring and crashing with the lovers lost in Malick's exotic, erotic new world. Read more

Mike Clark, USA Today: That sound you're about to hear is the cracking of spines as Terrence Malick enthusiasts like me bend over backward trying to cut The New World a break. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: The ponderous narrative lacks so much focus that it will likely leave most viewers squirming in their seats. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: Malick's exalted visuals and isolated metaphysical epiphanies are ill-supported by a muddled, lurching narrative, resulting in a sprawling, unfocused account of an epochal historical moment. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: As an epic, it's monumentally slight. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: The New World is stately almost to the point of being static and thus has trouble finding a central story around which to arrange itself; it's not quite the thin dead line, but it's close. Read more