DVD guide: 'The New World'

The New World (PG-13)

Included on the DVD of Terrence Malick's story of Pocahontas is a documentary revealing the care that went into making "The New World": the Jamestown fort built from local materials; the "tribe" of Virginia Algonquins assembled from native Americans; the fields planted with only 17th-century crops, free of genetically modified seeds. It's too bad the same attention wasn't paid to the story. While pleasant to look at, "The New World" lacks narrative structure, only skimming the surface of one of history's seminal events - the arrival of Europeans to North America - and controversial love stories, between Capt. John Smith (Colin Farrell) and the preteen "natural" (Q'Orianka Kilcher, above). Farrell says that Kilcher, making her feature debut, has a smile that could light up both hemispheres at once. Indeed, she does. Sadly, this story emits no such fire. Grade: C+