I suspect that many people will be tempted to walk out during the first half of The New World, which is the most willfully unconventional Hollywood movie in years. The ads don't adequately prepare you for how strange it really is—a blissed-out version of Aguirre: The Wrath of God that is almost insolently elliptical and mysterious. I was alternately dazzled, bored, and confused by the first hour, which tells the story of Jamestown with a few muddled flashes of narrative and a lot of intoxicating images, mostly involving Q'orianka Kilcher as...well, you know who. (She's great, if a trifle too pretty.) But the second half crystallizes beautifully, and the movie as a whole leaves you overwhelmed with extraordinary images and feelings, tied together by James Horner's incredible score. The New World isn't for everyone, but I have a hunch that it will be intensely important to certain viewers for a long time to come, if they manage to get through it.