Monday, December 11, 2006

The New World (movie review)

I thought this film was somewhat boldly experimental, mixing an apparently big budget commitment to sets (the extravaganza genre), and a more interiorized soundtrack, focusing on the mixed thoughts and emotions of the principals (the intimate stage play genre). There's remarkably little outward speaking, and not just because of the language barrier, which is slowly overcome.

Another liberty taken by this film is it doesn't insist that you hate any vertex in this love triangle: two Englishmen and a Natural woman (they call 'em Naturals in the script -- I had a hard time deciphering a lot of the verbiage). All hail from strict societies, so the possibility of simply eloping and moving to Arizona or whatever remains remote. The navam princess and captain guy are both hamstrung with prior commitments, encumbered with strings to family, tribe and king.

Our princess goes through the longest and deepest journey I'd say, though her first boyfriend has steely adventures off camera to which we're not privy. Her second boyfriend is not a disappointment in the end (they launch a new life together), proving that true love has its sequels. But in another sense, the original two lovers died in the forest, their longer term happiness together simply not in the cards, and when they meet once again in some English garden, it's already the afterlife for both of them, surreal in its continuity amidst the discontinuity each has experienced.