I would be lying if I said I didn't originally want to see this purely for Colin Farrell. Even having heard all the warnings about the length and boringness of it, I'm very pleased I did take the plunge. There is no denying that this is some of the most beautiful cinematography I've ever seen.
The first hour, where the Europeans are settling in Virginia - and where Colin's Captain Smith is spending time with the natives and falling in love with Pocahontas - is such a relaxing and enchanting joy to watch that you feel like you're almost drifting through a dream. Every frame is gorgeous and everything looks so tactile… it's almost like you can feel the grass underneath your bare feet or the wind on your face or the water lapping at your skin. Just gorgeous. As is Colin. But especially Q'Orianka Kilcher as Pocahontas. She is beautiful beyond words and without even too much talking conveys everything she's feeling with sublime grace.
The first half of the movie evoked such beauty to all the senses that I could have died happy just then. However, an hour and half in and you start feeling the length. Especially when you find yourself detesting the advances Christian Bales's John Rolfe is making on Pocahontas, despite his gentle ways and good nature. As the director intended, your heart, as hers, is still in the depths of the woods with Captain Smith. Especially grueling is the return to England, the cold grey light, the way Pocahontas has been transformed into a lady… it all makes you feel cold and constrained and anxious, wanting for the scenes to pass quicker, yearning to return to the nature and 'reality'.
The bittersweet ending leaves you somehow sad but also optimistic, like it is possible to grow and it is possible to learn to love again. As almost painfully long as the film was I can't think of anything I'd want to cut from it. Not even - or especially - the long lingering nature shots of fields and forests and water... What a beautiful piece of cinema. But definitely not one to take your action-film-loving-boyfriend to. It's like the perfect poem in cinematic form.