The New World, director Terrence Malick’s fourth film and fourth breathtaking masterpiece, is many things. It’s a historical exploration of what occurred when the first European explorers clashed with the Native Americans when they began settling in North America. It’s a romance between two strangers whose worlds couldn’t be further apart. It’s a study of human nature and how dominant societies become dominant through refusing to accept the culture of others and instead demanding that other societies bend to their customs or be eradicated. Most of all, though, it’s a unique coming-of-age tale, showing the evolution of a young innocent girl into an anguished, matured woman.

When the European settlers first arrive, Pocahontas (Q’orianka Kilcher) is a beautiful, enchanting young woman. In our first moments with her, we see her frolicking in the grass, using body language to play with her brother and simply enjoy life. She is a fully liberated woman and Kilcher plays her with a wide-eyed curiosity and playfulness that instantly wins you over and has you yearning to learn more about this mysterious, pixie-esque creature. She enchants you with a quality one can only describe as ethereal, the kind of performance that comes along so rarely that it’s a crime to miss when it does. As her character grows and is forced to adapt to the English standards of society, Kilcher’s portrayal becomes incredibly fascinating as she pours a level of emotion into this tortured soul that is absolutely astonishing from someone her age. Her performance effortlessly matures as her character does, with a mysterious grace and complexity that is far beyond her years, in terms of both the actress and the character. In the final moments of the film we see how she has fully matured into a woman who approaches things from a much more mental standpoint, instead of just following her heart wherever it takes her. Throughout the film she was let down and abandoned by her love and he proved to be unreliable, so when she was faced with the decision of choosing between her passionate lover and someone who would always be there for her, she showed an enormous amount of growth by choosing the latter. Malick allows us to watch someone from her birth into English culture all the way through adolescence and into a fully realized woman, without making it obvious that we are watching a woman develop through all of the early stages of womanhood. Kilcher keeps up with every beat of this evolution, flawlessly maturing in a natural way, rather than in huge steps like most films tend to do.

Soon after the Englishmen settle, their colony is met with turmoil, as happens whenever a new society attempts to build from scratch. In this turmoil, they decide to send John Smith (Colin Farrell) a soldier with questionable standing among the settlers, to go and see the Native American’s leader and attempt to begin trading goods. When he arrives he is met with aggression and when his life is about to end, Pocahontas steps in and saves him. This quickly forms a strong bond between the two of them, as two cultures collide and two people instantly realize a connection and use this to explore an entirely new world within each other. This is a romance like very few others before it, as they grow together, John becoming more liberated and in touch with nature through her people and Pocahontas becoming more constricted and immersed in chaos through his. The language barrier between the two of them could have created a problem for most writer/directors, but Malick doesn’t miss a step and, along with his actors, creates a romance that transcends words. It’s one of movements and body language, one of the most beautiful romances ever put on screen. Instead of focusing on words and typical development, this is a romance entirely of the heart and watching it was one of the most heartwarming experiences of my life. The scene where they slowly slide their hands across each other’s bodies is one of the most beautiful and romantic in cinematic history.

In casting the internal, soft romantic lead John Smith, Malick could have gone with at least a dozen easy choices through Hollywood’s leading men or indie darlings with grand reputations. Instead, he went for Colin Farrell, a man fresh off of action thrillers like S.W.A.T. and The Recruit, who had recently become a big name in American audiences thanks to testosterone-driven, masculine performances in a plethora of “guy” films. This was a fascinating choice and, given Farrell’s magnificent talents, a very intelligent one on his part. I have never seen Farrell give a performance anything like this, yet it was no surprise that he nailed every second of it. He portrays Smith with a gentleness and grace that I didn’t know he had in him, but when his romantic scenes with Kilcher began I was amazed that he hadn’t made a career out of roles like this. Another display of the tremendous talent and range that he contains.

Many directors would have gone the typical Hollywood route in depicting Native Americans. They would have shown them as savages and casted Hollywood actors to do their best accents to speak in English but make it believable for the audience that these people were out to get us. Terrence Malick however, in one of his many genius moves, went with an approach I’ve never seen before. He did all of the homework he could and portrayed their story in a shockingly realistic manner, bringing a language back from the dead and casting people of true Native American heritage for the roles. But he went even further than that, singling it down to the exact region of these people and bringing authenticity to an all time high. In fact, he doesn’t miss a beat on making any aspect of this film entirely genuine. Every inch of this film breathes life and complete authenticity to a jaw dropping level. He doesn’t portray the settlers as pure evil and the natives as pure good or vice versa, but instead portrays every person as a human being and each side has their own reasonable motives for everything they do and their own favorable and unfavorable members.

Throughout the picture, there is an underlying theme of society and their need to force others to adapt to their customs, which ties in wonderfully with Pocahontas’ coming-of-age story. When we first meet the natives, they are a spiritual group of people, very in touch with nature and the simple beauty of the earth. Pocahontas in particular embodies this approach to life. But as she begins to live with the English people, they force her to change her ways because they don’t understand them. They destroy where she came from and remove any trace of her beginnings. It’s tragic watching a culture completely change this girl, this being of pure, unimaginable beauty, into what they feel is appropriate. They make her wear restricting clothes and give her a new name, whereas before she received that name no one (not even herself or her own people) labeled her as anything. I was surprised to find myself absolutely devastated by this aspect of the story, even when Pocahontas came to terms with the world and what it takes to be a part of it in the end. Her final conversation with Smith is a very poignant one and embodies most of the themes of the film; how their love was pure and beautiful, but it ran it’s course and now it’s time for them both to move onto something new. This message fits with what was occurring in the Americas, as they were transformed from pure beauty into the standards of European living.

Despite only having four films under his belt over the course of three decades, it is clear that Terrence Malick is one of the most impressive and unique talents in cinematic history. It is also clear that he has a very strong connection with nature and the beauty of it, and this is perhaps the finest display of his relationship with the earth. He creates entrancing visuals without any special effects and immerses the viewer in this gorgeous world and the pure, indescribable beauty of nature is the perfect parallel for the pure, indescribable beauty of the romance in the center of the picture. Of course, along with any Malick film there is also a score to die for and this one hits that same mix of extreme grace and splendor with an almost ominous, haunting undertone, while never overpowering the characters and story of the film. Like Malick’s other three masterpieces, The New World is a film whose brilliance can’t ever fully be described in words. It’s more of an experience than anything and, like any true experience, when it’s over you can’t describe what it was that made it so amazing. You just know that it was perfect.