User reviews

'War movie' is a Hollywood genre that has been done and redone so many times that clichéd dialogue, rehashed plot and over-the-top action sequences seem unavoidable for any conflict dealing with large-scale combat. Once in a while, however, a war movie comes along that goes against the grain and brings a truly original and compelling story to life on the silver screen. The Civil War-era "Cold Mountain," starring Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Renée Zellweger is such a film.

Then again, calling Cold Mountain" a war movie is not entirely accurate. True enough, the film opens with a (quite literally) quick-and-dirty battle sequence that puts "Glory" director Edward Zwick shame. However, "Cold Mountain" is not so much about the Civil War itself as it is about the period and the people of the times. The story centers around disgruntled Confederate soldier Inman, played by Jude Law, who becomes disgusted with the gruesome war and homesick for the beautiful hamlet of Cold Mountain, North Carolina and the equally beautiful southern belle he left behind, Ada Monroe, played by Nicole Kidman. At first glance, this setup appears formulaic as the romantic interest back home gives the audience enough sympathy to root for the reluctant soldier's tribulations on the battlefield. Indeed, the earlier segments of the film are relatively unimpressive and even somewhat contrived.

"Cold Mountain" soon takes a drastic turn, though, as the intrepid hero Inman turns out to be a deserter (incidentally saving the audience from the potentially confusing scenario of wanting to root for the Confederates) and begins a long odyssey homeward. Meanwhile, back at the farm, Ada's cultured ways prove of little use in the fields; soon she is transformed into something of a wilderbeast. Coming to Ada's rescue is the course, tough-as-nails Ruby Thewes, played by Renée Zellweger, who helps Ada put the farm back together and, perhaps more importantly, cope with the loneliness and isolation the war seems to have brought upon Ada.

Within these two settings, a vivid, compelling and, at times, very disturbing portrait of the war-torn South unfolds. The characters with whom Inman and Ada interact are surprisingly complex, enhanced by wonderful performances of Brendan Gleeson as Ruby's deadbeat father, Ray Winstone as an unrepentant southern "lawman," and Natalie Portman as a deeply troubled and isolated young mother. All have been greatly affected and changed by "the war of Northern aggression," mostly for the worse. The dark, pervading anti-war message, accented by an effective, haunting score and chillingly beautiful shots of Virginia and North Carolina, is communicated to the audience not so much by gruesome battle scenes as by the scarred land and traumatized people for which the war was fought. Though the weapons and tactics of war itself have changed much in the past century, it's hellish effect on the land is timelessly relevant.

Director Anthony Minghella manages to maintain this gloomy mood for most of the film, but the atmosphere is unfortunately denigrated by a rather tepid climax that does little justice to the wonderfully formed characters. The love story between Inman and Ada is awkwardly tacked onto the beginning and end of the film, though the inherently distant, abstracted and even absurd nature of their relationship in a way fits the dismal nature of the rest of the plot.

Make no mistake, "Cold Mountain" has neither the traits of a feel-good romance nor an inspiring war drama. It is a unique vision of an era that is sure not only to entertain but also to truly absorb the audience into the lives of a people torn apart by a war and entirely desperate to be rid of its terrible repercussions altogether.

The movie deals about American Civil War (1861-1865) , the starring (Jude Law , though Matt Damon, Josh Hartnett, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Eric Bana were all considered for this role) meets Ada (Nicole Kidman , though Julia Roberts and Cate Blanchett were both considered) in ¨Cold mountain¨ and they fall in love . Then he's enlisted and participates in Battle of Saint Petesburg (Virginia 1864). He leaves and sets off to find his lover . Being dead her father (Donald Sutherland), Nicole will have to confront a lot of misfortunes until that she's helped by a valiant woman (Renee Zellweger) .

The picture is overlong , runtime is approx. three hours but is neither boring , nor tiring , but entertaining for the reason that happen several events . The film blends epic battles, drama , a love story, shootouts and a little bit of violence . The motion picture is pretty strong with crude scenes : the bloody battles ,rampages , rape , murders...it has many violent shots , for that reason the film is rated ¨R¨ as the violence is extreme with cruel killings , besides some sex scenes.

In United States attained a moderated success in spite of nomination to various Oscars , though only obtained one award to support cast for Renee Zellweger . In Europe achieved much more success at the box office . The picture has spectacular sets and some wonderful snowy and natural landscapes. Many of the scenes were shot in the Carpathian mountains in Romania . The production design and set design by Dante Ferretti is breathtaking .

Jude Law and Nicole Kidman interpretation is top notch likeness to Renee Zellweger rightly rewarded . The secondary actors are first rate : The hideous Ray Winstone , the renegade priest Philip Seymour Hoffman , the kind Bernard Gleeson , everybody are good. Gabriel Yared musical score is romantic and magnificent and John Seale cinematography is astounding and stunningly made . Anthony Mingella direction is accurately developed but there're some moments with slightly slow movement . The flick will appeal to emotion enthusiasts and romantic films fans . Rating: Very good . Above average , well worth watching.

A strongly acted and always interesting portrait of the hardships that came with the American Civil War, not only for soldiers but for those who did not fight too. The times are portrayed well, with sets and costumes that cannot be faulted. What can be flawed in the film however is the central romance, which is without much spark or realism. But all the action surrounding the romance is great, with some good-natured humorous touches, wonderful supporting characters and the perfect picture overall of life during the American Civil War. The cast is superb, with Zellweger in particular undergoing a superb transformation from her typical roles. The film is generally well written and well directed by Minghella, so that in spite of a lackluster romance, the film is still a captivating and entertaining watch.

Anthony Mingheller's astounding film cleverly sweeps the audience into the horrors of war at its beginning. He then introduces his two principle characters who would gradually move the audience into their world wrought by war and hardship. We watch as the characters begin to unravel their internal tortures and their need to subdue their isolation to face their regrets and hope for the future. This is an absolutely fabulous movie that portrays the stunning performances of its stellar cast of actors and the overwhelming raw landscapes that are kept in sync with their events and moods. Observe the stages of emotional changes in the characters. So amazingly and magnificently captured at different camera angles, from scene to scene against the cold, mountainous countryside!

This film isn't throwing off longwinded dialogue and lengthy physical encounters between Jude Law's Inman and Nicole Kidman's Ada to reveal the meeting of two souls searching for a meaningful existence. Yep, it's that brief and silent stare of Inman as he confronts the graciously low-keyed, prim and proper Ada that explicitly puts their sensory awareness of each other so powerfully on screen. As the events flow, I was completely mesmerized by the Inman character watching him transcend to his sense of isolation and his developing disillusion with his world. On the other hand, I couldn't take my eyes off the immaculately well-bred and gorgeous Ada as she succumbs into a scrawny hapless damsel in complete distress. It's fascinating to watch the couple adapt to situations beyond their control and to study the emotional and behavioral attitudes of two human beings altering at such opposing magnitude as a result of one war. Observe how the once popular Inman slips into desolation in the battlefield, becoming even more tormented from his world as he meets up with some very strange characters. Will he ever find solace with these characters, or with Ada at the end? Will Ada, while feeling alienated from her new abode, at the beginning of the film and with the death of her father, be able to battle her insecurity to become spiritually enlightened and physically capable with the help of her new acquaintances? Is she able to embraces what the farmland has to offer her? And will Inman be capable of escaping what the gruesome battlefield has come to mean to him? This film lays out an enormous ground for the examination of the effects a war on different individuals.

The film continues to remind the audience that Ada and Inman are bound together by their haunting memories of one another. That, indeed, is beautifully captured by the expressions on Law and Kidman's faces. The symbolisms, throughout the film, are plentiful and brilliantly ascribed, allowing the audience to join the dots to the destinies of the couple. Even crows, clearly suggesting doom and destruction, never fail to demonstrate the dark instincts that trouble a man's soul. And those women Inman meets in his journey seem to trigger the expectation of the audience to see him drawing closer to the woman he loves and to home. Even these characters, encountered by Inman, provide a picture of how different people react to the war. But will war ultimately bring peace and safety to its protagonists? This film is a masterpiece that will provide much food for thought.

Renee Zwellweger is phenomenal in her boisterously loud 'Ruby' role. She brings another aspect of the American woman that's so different in breeding from Kidman's Ada. Both are educated in their different cultural way of life. What can Ada learn from Ruby, the frontier woman who sees the 'hands and knees' toiling as the only way of survival in her community? Zwellweger provides the comic relief that's much needed for this powerfully intense film. She's superb in her role as the beacon of strength and hope for injecting a meaningful existence of living. Unlike the soldiers or the hypocritical Home Guard authorities that use guns to destroy their enemies, Ruby uses her hands-on skills to beat the odds of survival. It's uncannily delightful to watch her interacting with Kidman's character. She, Law and Kidman are definitely worthy of being recipients of the Oscar statuettes. They exhibit their superb non-stop performing talents in this film with their onscreen appearances. The Q&A session with Brendon Gleeson (who plays Ruby's father), has prompted me to want to go see this movie again - to watch closely how the strength of the film's womenfolk can make a difference to the human beings' survival instincts. I want to study again how hellish wars are for destroying and crippling, not only the physical, but the mental aspects of the masculine race. And Gleeson does drive home an interesting question: When these mountain folks `volunteer' to fight a war, how come they should be penalized as deserters if they were to decide to opt out of it?

This film is a MUST-SEE. It's beautifully crafted, assembled, and absolutely mesmerizing in all aspects of filmmaking techniques and style. The music score and soundtracks are so appropriate locked into the events and the moods of the characters. And the film's title? It does project its allegorical appeal.

A+

This movie worked for me because I see this movie as an exact opposite of 'Gone With The Wind.' Farm owners instead of plantation owners. Scarlett fights and connives for what she wants; Ada gets depressed and turns inside herself until Ruby, (Renee Zellweger,) shows up to save the day. Sort of, in a round about way. Deserters instead of officers trying to get back to their families, the lists goes on and on. Even the love story was opposite. If this is what the producer and writers were trying to get across it succeeded with me.

There are only two things I didn't like about the movie, the rest I thought was well done and I liked it enough to recommend it to friends. First, I couldn't see the attraction between Inman, (Jude Law), and Ada, (Nicole Kidman,) as being strong enough for Inman to desert to get back to her. Inman said he only had written to her a few times where Ada wrote to him almost constantly. Second, something or someone getting killed or dying in almost every scene was a little much. I must say it was full of action because of that, but after about the second scene I knew something or someone was going to die in the next scene. I like to be surprised by the next scene, not know what is going to happen before it does.

I thought all the acting was very well done, with Zellweger the best. She deserved the credit she got for it. I thought she played the part of the hillbilly girl very well. She must have done her homework on the part. Zellweger even said in the movie that she was smarter than people thought she was. I think that was true. Law did well with his part with all he had to go through to get back to Kidman. It must have been a lot stronger love to go through all that than I thought it was. Now he showed a lot of emotion in his face during his trials. Kidman's part may have had something to do with the fact I chose her performance after the other two. Except when she was depressed she didn't show much emotion, I don't know if that is how the part was written or if that is how she perceived the part. She still did a good job, I just thought the other two were better.

I liked the scene with the Zellweger, Kidman and the rooster, even though it was one of those scenes I mentioned above. I thought the 'Home Guard' was exactly as they probably were back then. Even though we don't hear much about them they were a part of that time. I thought the scenery was beautiful. The movie had everything needed to be a good historical romance.

Anthony Minghela's (writer/director) Cold Mountain is a carefully constructed, sensitive, and intelligent drama set in the social context of the confederacy during the civil war. It deals with the politics of the war in a very subtle and realistic manner. While it accurately depicts the brutality and inhumanity of that war, it also does something that many films related to this period do not handle effectively - Cold Mountain studies the southern context from the inside out, and portrays changes among the non-slave owning common people wrought by the war. Almost uniquely, Cold Mountain does not over-generalize southerners, northerners or anybody else.

The film surfs through genres as needed - never presenting a dull moment. It is a romance, a war story, an action-adventure and historical fiction, all nicely woven into one.

The story centers on Inman (Jude Law) and Ada Monroe (Nicole Kidman), who are smitten with each other for very simple reasons. As this young romance begins to bud, Inman enlists in the confederate army, taking with him a book Ada has given him and a photograph of her. Ada's character is one of the most brilliant aspects of the film, which is important because the audience experiences this film from a third person perspective, but the story is clearly hers from the beginning to the end. Ada is an intelligent southern belle and daughter of a liberal minister. She begins the film as a daddy's girl skilled in many of the arts that southern women who have been surrounded by servants most of their lives were expected to learn. In other words, as she admits to Ruby Thewes (Renee Zellweger), she is a master of everything useless.

Ada's father passes on, and she is left to manage his modest estate by herself. With no experience of this sort, she struggles, and survives by holding the memory of Inman close to her heart. Ruby enters the picture as a tough young woman who has been raised by a drunk and negligent father. Ruby has all the skills and abilities Ada lacks, and as they become inseparable business partners, they grow to love one another as best friends. Inman's experience is radically different, but something of a mirror image. During his participation in the war, he sees many friends killed for causes they don't really believe in, and decides to desert. Nobody he meets comes to his rescue as he begins the thousand mile walk back to Cold Mountain and Ada, and most of those he meets die.

The bulk of the film takes place during Inman's long walk, following both of the protagonists as they live, learn, grow and change. An on-going act of will borne of desperation preserves their intense passionate love. For Inman, it is his only source of hope in a world of pure desperation. For Ada, it is very much the same thing, but also a symbol and remnant of the old south - a world which is rapidly passing.

The cinematography is powerful and breathtaking. There are beautiful shots of Appalachian landscapes which give the film a strong sense of history. The script and editing are also extremely strong - emphasizing the broad class and educational differences reflected in the ante bellum southern dialects of the middle and lower classes. With the cast of this film, nothing short of perfection should be expected. And the cast, mostly, rises to the occasion. My one criticism, however, relates to the accents adopted by Kidman and Law's characters. An Australian and a Brit probably should not be expected to accurately reproduce southern American speech, but there are a few occasions where these two exceptionally gifted actors produce distracting vocal slips. I admit my oversensitivity to this, and can say with some confidence that it won't bother most people. Zellweger's performance is outstanding and she creates a character I will remember into my senescence.

Very highly recommended.

Overly long and depressing account of mostly the Southern Homefront during the Civil War. This is not at all a pleasant time Historically and it is just the same in this well mounted Production. With Mega-Stars and Mega Character Actors it is one unpleasantness after another with very little left to the imagination.

There was a lot of dreaming and romanticizing during and about this period mostly to conceal the unbelievable pain and suffering but none of that can hide here. This is an anti-war Movie no doubt and it pulls no punches in that regard. But it is so agonizing the Romantic elements can barely penetrate all the nastiness.

Overall, it is a truly disturbing display of Wars inevitable intrusion into the participants lives and dramatically deconstructed the Heart and Soul and renders the most basic Humanisms, but it is not a pretty picture and is quite a despairing piece of work

This movie moved me more than I was expecting, and I was fully prepared to cry. The acting mainly carried this film, with superb performances from Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Renee Zellweger, as well as the supporting cast. These actors portrayed characters so intensely human that they lingered the remainder of the night with me, and I had trouble shaking this war drama. The costumes and cinematography were also magical, but didn't get carried away with themselves. They didn't take focus, but added to the whole effect. Cold Mountain could never become my favorite movie, as that title will always belong to The English Patient, but it's in the top five. The story itself was well developed, and stayed fairly unpredictable. I did not find myself guessing what line came next. A heart-wrenching story about humanity and war. In fact, this movie was so strongly real that it was barely noticeable it took place in the 19th century. It seemed to apply to all times.

Great tale of a confederate deserter during the Civil War. All-Star cast with great performances all around. If you haven't seen it, you're missing something special.

I went into this film thinking I wasn't going to like it, but hoping to be surprised, but this, much like the film, ended up being bleak and hopeless. But don't get me wrong, Minghella delivers every bit of a grand epic and for those who enjoy that kind of experience and are willing to take that adventure and accept what comes as just that, then they will not be disappointed and it will be one of the better films of the year in their opinion. The acting is of a high quality and will most likely come away with a trinity of oscar noms for Law, Kidman and Zellweger, even though Portman's few scenes may be the most powerful in the film. The locations are beautiful and Minghella has an eye for a good shot.

However, for those like me who want the director to take them on the adventure instead of going willingly may come away disappointed mainly due to Minghella and his adaptation. The film is so utterly bleak it makes for what I consider to be a punching bag epic which is a film that that tries to hit hard with emotion but does so to such an extreme and so often that during the film I didn't have the time to emotionally invest, or hadn't recovered from a previous blow, and it became unrealistic and consequently too difficult to really care, not to mention predictable. Overall the "Cold Mountain" almost left me too drained to even think back on the good aspects of the film, as all I remember is death, which may have been an original motif but ends up being the focus instead of the characters.

In Cold Mountain, North Colorado, near to the period of the American Civil War, the Reverend Monroe (Donald Sutherland) arrives in the small town with his daughter, the shy Ada Monroe (Nicole Kidman), due to health reasons. Ada meets the also shy Inman (Jude Law), and they fall in love with each other. With the beginning of the war, Inman becomes a soldier, and his great support to stay alive is the wish to see Ada in Cold Mountain again. Meanwhile, Ada meets Ruby Thewes (Renée Zellweger), a survivor of the war, who helps her in the farm and becomes her best friend. The story alternates present and past situations, disclosing a beautiful romance. I liked this film a lot. Having names such as Philip Seymour Hoffman, Natalie Portman and Giovanni Ribisi in the supporting cast, a magnificent direction of Anthony Minghella and seven indications to the Oscar, this movie does not disappoint. My remark is that there are some very important scenes deleted in the story and presented in the DVD. At least one of them, which show what happens with Sara, her baby and the three dead bodies in her farm, should not be deleted as it was. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): 'Cold Mountain'

Some movies has great acting that make the movie. This is a perfect example. Without Renee Zellweger giving an Oscar winning performance, this movie would not have been enjoyable. Her portrayal of Ruby Thewes, the tough talking farm girl who doesn't take nothing' from nobody. It was this character that saved the movie.

The movie focuses on the journey taken by Inman (Jude Law) on his way back from the Civil War to find his lover Ada Monroe (Nicole Kidman). On this journey he comes across some unsavory characters and has to tough it out to find his way back to Ada. Meanwhile, Ada must keep try and keep the farm with the help of Ruby. Ada doesn't know much about farming but since her father just passed away, she must make it or break it. Hiding two deserters from the war, one being Ruby's father, doesn't make things easier with the local law enforcement always keeping an eye out on the area for people hiding deserters.

This movie isn't terrible, but it isn't unbelievable either. If it weren't for Zellweger's performance, the movie would not be even close to the caliber of greatness. It is a good watch with some thrills and entertaining portions. The journey that Inman embarks on isn't an easy one and does have its surprises. Overall Cold Mountain is worth a viewing but may not be the right choice to buy. This film isn't for everyone but for those who like great acting, this is the place.

Cold Mountain alternates between the stories of Nicole Kidman, waiting at home for her sweetheart to return from the civil war, and Jude Law, her sweetheart trying to find his way back to her. For conflict we have a rather nasty band of home guard who race around killing deserters... But Jude Law is a deserter... oh no! Run, Jude, run!

Another period tragedy masquerading as romance adapted from a famous novel by Anthony Minghella. This time its a sweethearts separated by the civil war "tell me a tale" story. The plot is Mills and Boone / Midday Melodrama, but so exquisitely filmed with such an exquisite soundtrack that we hardly notice. It maintains a sombre tone throughout, and goes for tears almost non-stop.

I've pinned down the fatal flaw with the film. I felt that Kidman and Law had zero chemistry: that the film worked, but when the two finally met up, it felt wrong, like they were two separate satellites, individually fine, but there was nothing between them. Its built into the structure of the movie. The two hardly know each other before he goes off to war: they kiss, she gives him a photo and speaks in a poor southern accent, and that's it. Then they spend the entire movie not sharing the screen. They have their completely separate story-lines: him at war, and then journeying back to her; her at home waiting for him. So by the time they finally meet, we have gotten to know them both as independent from each other - and somehow this fits. Which is why it seems wrong once they're together. And there's the fact that Kidman is an ICE QUEEN!

She's becoming increasingly cold and distant - and looking more and more like Vivien Leigh. If she's not careful, she may just end up like Vivien. Her career is in danger of disappearing if she doesn't come back down to earth, experience the real world and real people again.

For a female protagonist in this film we needed somebody who the audience could associate with, imprint themselves on - instead we have someone with only relevance to her insulated celluloid world than to us, the audience. She's like a porcelain doll: elegant, but nothing to do with reality.

Zellweger is a definite scene-stealing highlight. A unique, vibrant character - almost a broad character, but not a 2D character.

5/10. Everything about its look is 10/10 stuff. Superb cinematography, great performances from Jude Law, albeit iffy southern accents right the way through, and despite the fact that I did not like Kidman at all in this, I enjoyed it, but its flawed, to my mind, by the lack of a chemistry, and Nicole Kidman's unwelcoming, mannered persona.

Anthony Minghella knew something of the Civil War in locating his story in North Carolina. Of all the states that seceded to form the Confederacy, North Carolina may have been the most reluctant. It's Governor Zebulon Vance who is mentioned in the story dragged his feet in giving help to the Confederate government and its citizens save for the east where the plantations were never really embraced the Southern cause. Jude Law's attitude about fighting for a rich man to own slaves was not at all uncommon in North Carolina.

Which after a well staged recreation of the siege at Petersburg which when the north blew up the Confederate defenses by tunneling under and mining them with explosives did not have the desired result, Law decides he's sick of war and just quits to go back to his sweetheart Nicole Kidman on Cold Mountain. In the meantime Nicole is having her own problems just keeping body, soul, and property together on the small family farm. So the film proceeds along two tracks of Law's journey and Kidman's problems.

The stronger track for me is clearly Kidman and her problems. Renee Zellweger won a Best Supporting Actress Award for playing a young white trash woman who Kidman takes on for just board and feed to help with the farm. Without her help the farm's survival would be problematic although she has to put up with some pithy observation as well. Zellweger invests this simple character with so many dimensions her performance even without the Oscar capping it is her personal best. Kidman while not to the plantation manor born being the daughter of minister Donald Sutherland also is not used to manual farm labor. She grows in character as the film progresses.

As for Law and Kidman as well he has to worry about the Home guard, a self appointed group of militia taking over because official government machinery has broken down. Probably before the war they were slave catchers, now they hunt deserters and those who aid and abet them. Giovanni Ribisi also scores well as a young man in the home guard who declined to serve at places like Petersburg. Ribisi is some piece of work.

Besides Zellweger's Oscar, Cold Mountain was deservedly nominated for a flock of other Oscars. It's a marvelous look at the decline of the Confederacy, a cause that simply would not die quietly. In its own way the survivors are invested with the same kind of nobility that the Gone With The Wind cast was.

Cold mountain is a film that addresses big issues like romance, friendship and the harsh effects of war. It shows these things in a very open and raw way. The film's best thing that it has going for it is the excellent performances by the A list cast. Nicole Kidman is an extremely talented actress and she turns in a great performance as Ada. Jude Law also stars as Ada's love interest, even though he rarely shares the screen with Kidman, the majority of the film focuses on them living apart longing to see one another again. And that journey to return to each other is really what makes the romance great here. We also have Renee Zellweger. This is the performance that earned her an academy award. Zellweger is wonderful here, she plays a very blunt, country girl that helps out Ada with the farm. The movie's best acted moments are by Zellweger. She truly makes the viewer feel the raw emotion in her performance. The script is very well written. I love how it isn't melodramatic but it still manages to create emotion. Seeing these characters and the tragic events they go through will make you care deeply for them. But it isn't just that they go through junk, it's how they survive and the connections they have in one another. That's really what Cold Mountain is all about. It's about connections with people and learning how to keep going. 8/10. I recommend this one!

Jack White's music in particular his voice set a tone for the whole film.

This film is a sad reminder that an impeccable pedigree does not guarantee an impeccable result. Great cast, a powerful story, amazing cinematography, a director whose previous two films I enjoyed immensely - so why does this movie feel so underwhelming and hollow?

Well, the biggest obstacle for me is the central relationship of Inman and Ada. I love Jude Law and Nicole Kidman, but their scenes together are the weakest link that ultimately undoes the chain. In a film where your star-crossed lovers spend most of the time apart, it is crucial that one believes in their love and wishes for them to get back together, and that's just something the film fails to do completely. One could blame the fact that Ada and Inman spend barely any time together before they're torn apart by the war, but when you come down to it I simply felt no chemistry whatsoever between them. There's far more sparkles flying between the characters of Renee Zellwegger and Jack White, for crying out loud.

On their own, Law and Kidman fare with varying results. Kidman's Ada turned out to be a far more sympathetic character than I expected her to be, and her growth from a helpless and clueless house plant into a self-sufficient farmer is convincing even if not exactly demanding. Jude Law tries hard to inject some humanity into Inman, but his supposed suffering over the horrors he's seen and done never really rings true.

It is also a problem IMO when your main characters are getting constantly upstaged by the far more interesting supporting players. Phillip Seymour Hoffman is fantastic (as always) as a fallen priest who tries to commit a murder. I noticed that people either love or hate Renee Zellwegger's plucky Ruby. For my part I was initially distracted by her over-acting and the way every word comes out of her mouth like a pistol shot, but she definitely injects some energy and no-nonsense humour into the film. It's a flamboyant and showy part that is bound to get awards, but for my money the best supporting moment belongs to Natalie Portman as a single mother struggling to survive all by herself in the woods. The scenes with her are the most poignant and hard-hitting in the film and really make you feel that the horror and cruelties and senseless waste of war is not confined to the battlefields.

Unfortunately all this good stuff is not enough to give Cold Mountain a true emotional core, or make it the sweeping epic it clearly strives to be.

I've always reacted against the ugliness of war. The politicians who send others to fight for them, sitting back, pontificating about the justice of battle. This is a slice of life story where two people are victims of forces they can only hope to avoid. Having read the book and knowing how it ended (no spoilers here), I sat back and watched what went on, seeing how certain figures were presented. Renee Zelwigger as Ruby, of course, dominates every scene she is in. She takes it all on. She is equipped to survive where others are not. I would like to find out if there really were groups of raiders who sought out deserters. I sometimes wonder if people knew half the time who was actually in a battalion, let alone sending out warrants on them. Were people pursued like Jude Law was? I need to find a Civil War scholar. The movie is episodic, like a modern day Odyssey. Every obstacle just leads to a more overwhelming one. Was there no kindness? Were all betrayers? Anyway, I felt a great sense of having been in a fight at the conclusion of this film. See it for its intensity and its life. Some of the acting is a bit wooden, but the course is rough and the way hard. That's what the film is all about.

Any war brings disasters to any nation or territory. American civil war was not an exception of these calamities, and in my opinion, this is what the director Anthony Minghella wanted to emphasize in this drama starred by young Jude Law and backed by Nicole Kidman and always efficient Renée Zellweger. The plot is about the love of a young couple, W.P. Inman (Law) and Ada Monroe, (N. Kidman). The first one had to go to the civil war where he was able to fight effectively and even saved the lives of some of his fellows. War was finished and he escaped from the hospital where he was recovering himself. At this point he had to overcome several serious difficulties in his way back home, he made it and found a situation of abuse by a group of gangs in his site. The couple finally decided to marry and start a new life, but the gangs once again frustrated this desire. The film is a good combination of suffering and love.

In 1860s North Carolina, the daughter of a recently-deceased reverend awaits a handsome carpenter's return from war, unaware that he was wounded after several violent battles with the Yankees and deserted his troop; meanwhile, with no means of support, she takes in a female ranch-hand to help transpose her bedraggled farm. Director Anthony Minghella, who also adapted the screenplay from Charles Frazier's book, shows a masterly tableaux feel for wartime savagery, and his openings moments of battle are vivid, acrid, and powerful. The unconsummated love story between Nicole Kidman and Jude Law doesn't work as well, mainly due to the past-and-present story structure but also because of the casting, which fails to come off. Kidman seems too womanly for this role--too alert and capable and grown-up--so it doesn't quite wash (in the dramatic sense) for her to be pining after a young man after just one goodbye kiss (and why did she pick him in the first place? We've already been told she could have any man she wanted). Meanwhile, Law, whose haunted stare gets possibly too much screen-time, is an odd choice to play a Southern American left alienated by wartime, but Renée Zellweger gives the movie a little kick (Zellweger comes into the picture at just the right time and, though her accent doesn't completely convince, her big spirit enlivens the proceedings). Minghella treats this scenario with great care, and he triumphs with small, individual scenes (such as the slaves hiding in the cornfield with their basket of eggs, the rotting corncobs on the stalk, the drift of the first winter snow). The filmmaker tends to lose his way with the extraneous story threads, such as one involving a preacher who's about to kill a slave because "she's got my bastard in her belly!", one of the many howlers in the script which land with a clatter. "Cold Mountain" is a both forthright and shameless; its many peaks and valleys do include some good scenes, and yet the 154mn runtime is self-defeating. ** from ****