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Cold Mountain [VHS]

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"Cold Mountains", one of the best films of the year (it's a crime it wasn't nominated for Best Picture), is beautifully crafted, stirring, poetic tale of love, loss, and the will to survive. Directed and adapted to the screen by the wonderful Anthony Minghella and boasting a stunning cast of Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renee Zellweger, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Natalie Portman, Giovanni Ribisi, Jack White, Brendan Gleeson, and Donald Sutherland, this film is truly a force to be reckoned with.

"Cold Mountain" tells the story of Inman (Law), a carpenter working in Cold Mountain, North Carolina in 1861 when the alluring, elegant, and well-educated Ada (Kidman) and her father, Reverend Monroe (Sutherland), move to the Blue Mountains from the city. Inman and Ada, in true Hollywood fashion, are instantly taken by each other and engage in restrained flirtation, Ada's preacher father and their different social classes being the bulwark from romance. Soon the Civil War begins and the entire young male population of Cold Mountain departs in eager anticipation of glorious battle. Inman and Ada engage in one fleeting, hungry kiss before he rushes off to join the departing procession.

During battle, Inman is wounded and, after reading Ada's numerous earnest letters imploring him to return to her, deserts the Confederate army and embarks upon an Odyssey-like journey back home to his true love. Meanwhile, Ada's father has died, leaving her helpless and alone on their 300 acre farm. Soon Ruby (Zellweger) arrives and offers Ada her services in exchange for food and shelter. Realizing that she simply cannot manage on her own, Ada agrees. The rest of this spellbinding film flashes back and forth between Ada, being "all that keeps Inman from sliding into some dark place" and Inman, being Ada's "last thread of courage". Though these two souls barely know each other, they both remarkably become the single thing in each others world worth living for, worth fighting for.

When boiled down to it, "Cold Mountain" is simply a beautiful testament of the human soul's fierce will to survive and, as corny as it sounds, the power of love. If it weren't for their love, neither Ada nor Inman would have found the will and courage to survive after their lives had been shattered by the brutalities of war.

The seamlessly intertwined music plays such a large emotional role in this film. From Gabriel Yard's haunting score to Alison Krauss' tender songs, the music in this films helps to create an absorbing atmosphere that sucks you right into the Civil War. In addition, John Seale's breathtaking cinematography complete with sweeping views of the snow-encrusted Blue Mountains makes this a film you simply must see on the big screen.

This has been a very difficult review for me to write. Upon first seeing "Cold Mountain", I was pleased with the film, but definitely not as taken with it as I soon came to be. That all changed in the weeks following. I simply cannot get this film out of my head. The hope, the sacrifices, the pain, the loss, the love. It really sticks with you. It's hard to put my feelings into words and I sincerely hope that this review has given you the incentive to go see this film, and by doing so, embark upon an unforgettable journey.

Cold Mountain is a beautiful movie set during the American Civil War. A North Carolina town of Cold Mountain has sent it's beloved sons to war leaving behind Mothers and Lovers. Our two main characters are Ada (Nicole Kidman) and Inman (Jude Law) two Cold Mountain residents dedicated to there reunion after the war, but the war drags on and there correspondence is the only thing that unites them in a terrible time of American History.

The movie tells of Inman's journey back to Ada and the parrallel story of Ada trying to survive on her fathers farm. Both characters take a journey in spirit and determination to survive the horror that has become there existance during the war.

I loved the intertwining of music and drama in this movie. Anthony Mingella did, as expected, an excellent job etching the powerful feelings of hope and dismay with haunting music written by Sting and performed by the clear voice of blue grasses own Alison Krauss. I am from North Carolina am familiar with the native music of the area and thought the music in the movie very similar and so wonderful.

Although, this is a Love Story more than a movie of the American Civil War it stirred the feeling of my Southern Roots. The movie did not contemplate the reasons for the Civil War but it was a vehicle for ours lovers seperation. I found the depiction of the Petersburg battle flawed not entirely accurate to history but then again the war is not the focus in the movie.

I was in aw of the cinemontography of this movie, magnificent. A gorgeous movie that needs to be seen.

Perhaps I am biased, since I am a North Carolinian, but I thought this movie excellent, bittersweet, wonderfully acted, and crafted by the best in the movie business today. I would recommend this movie.

I was so touched by the Lovers' correspondence between each other the quiet love between two people spelled out in words. You hear Ada reading her letters to Inman on his journey back to her and your heart aches for the both of them......sigh.

girldiver:)

"Cold Mountain," directed by Anthony Minghella, stars Jude Law as Inman, a Confederate soldier during the U.S. Civil War, and Nicole Kidman as Ada, the minister's daughter he loves and longs for when he leaves to fight. Renee Zellweger costars as Ruby, a feisty farmhand who works with Ada on the homefront.

This film is a period piece that has a true epic sweep, yet never loses an intimate connection with the main characters. The production design is full of fascinating and thoughtful details that make the film a joy to watch. But it's also often harrowing and graphically violent--Minghella does not flinch at exploring the injustice and brutality of humankind towards itself.

The performances are all superb. After having distinguished himself in a number of noteworthy supporting roles, Law really proves himself a great leading man here. Kidman brings both delicacy and steel to her role--a southern belle faced with daunting wartime challenges. Zellweger delivers a rich, earthy, zesty performance; she is a perfect foil for Kidman and their characters' relationship is one of the great highlights of the film. The three main actors are superbly supported by the rest of the cast.

"Cold Mountain" is often quite grim and brutal, but is leavened by earthy humor and irony. Ultimately I found the film to be life-affirming. It's a love story and a war story, but regardless of genre it's a superbly crafted and genuinely moving film.

I am a huge fan of Anthony Mingella's movies, I loved The Talented Mr. Riply and I liked The English Patient, though it was hella long, but this film was harder to like. The story is a good one and the book by Frazier is very good, but in its movie form it seems really depressing. I thought Kidman was very good and Zellweger was great, but I really did not like Law as Inman, he just did not register, it was hard to understand why Kidman longed for him so. The movie is extremely violent, in a Deliverance sort of way, the violence is real and disturbing, one scene in particular is just retching to watch, if you see this film you will know exactly what I am refering to, overall the quality of the film is very good and the cinematography is outstanding, it amazing how much Romania looks like North Carolina, I do recommend this film, but be forewarned it is depressing and hard to watch at times....enjoy.

"Cold Mountain," Anthony Minghella's film of Charles Frazier's novel, is a mournful, beautiful and occasionally profound film about the futility of war, the persistence of love and the desperate attempts of people to survive in wartime. The quiet, delicately nuanced performances of Jude Law and Nicole Kidman in the lead roles are deeply moving, and Renee Zellweger brings much-needed comic relief as Ruby, a plain-spoken farm worker. The film's episodic structure may distract some viewers, but the vignettes are extremely powerful per se, and they allow for some wonderful supporting performances--by Philip Seymour Hoffman, Eileen Atkins, Kathy Baker, Donald Sutherland, Natalie Portman, Giovanni Ribisi, Lucas Black, Brendan Gleeson, Ray Winstone, Jack White, Ethan Suplee and others--to be placed strategically in the movie like jewels in a crown. "Cold Mountain" makes the sad but undeniable point that at times of national tragedy, all the survivors can do is pick up the pieces, rebuild their lives as best they can, and find joy wherever they can. With fine performances, excellent music (by Sting, Jack White and others), and exquisite photography by John Seale, "Cold Mountain" lingers in our minds and hearts long after the closing credits roll.

COLD MOUNTAIN by Charles Frazier is without a doubt one of the best books I have ever read. It is a heart-wrenching story about Inman, a soldier fighting for the South in the Civil War, his desertion from the war, and his subsequent journey home. But it is also about Ada, the spoiled and impractically raised preacher's daughter who is left to fend for herself after her father dies. It is touching to watch Ada grow before your eyes as she learns to work and take care of herself for the first time, and becomes self- sufficient. When I discovered they were making it into a movie, I was ecstatic. I recently saw it, and I give it 3 stars out of 4. It was a good movie, but not great-(let LOTR win this year!)

First, I wanted to write this review because **I feel as though everyone is missing the point of the story somehow**. Some have stated they couldn't feel sympathy for Inman because his character was cold, and it glorified a deserter in some way. Others felt Ada's relationship with Inman was superficial and trite. It's very important to understand Inman's motivation for leaving the war in order to understand Inman as a person, and his relationship with Ada.

In my opinion, Inman is one of the bravest and most human characters any author has ever written. In the novel, Inman's inner turmoil is more evident than in the movie, so readers will find themselves better able to sympathize with him than viewers. Frazier's novel shows Inman is becoming dehumanized by his experiences in the war. He has seen too much. He has watched his friends murdered, he has taken lives with his own hands, he has done what he can to survive, and it is not honorable. It reminds me of the Wilfred Owen poem "Dulce Et Decorum Est" or Randall Jarrell's "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner", because those poems get across to readers there is nothing glorious about war. What the book gets across beautifully, and where the movie fell short, is the effects of war on the human soul. Inman's spirit is being BROKEN. There is a black place inside him he does not know if he can ever recover from. This is why he knows he must leave.

Inman doesn't know if he can ever recover from what he's been through. He has been irrevocably affected by what he's been through, this horrible tragedy that is war. He sees Ada as his salvation; she is the light at the end of his tunnel, the only possible chance for hope. Even in the novel, they didn't have much interaction before Inman left for war. It seemed as though there was much more left unsaid between them than was ever actually put into words. However, Ada and Inman saw something in each other that was enough to sustain them.

There were many good points about the film. Beautiful scenery and cinematography....fabulous costumes...rich characterization. The two main characters were well cast with wonderful chemistry. After thinking back on Kidman in "Far and Away", I knew she could pull off Ada's character, which is supposed to be cold and somewhat haughty. Jude Law is a perfect Inman. I especially enjoyed the moments between them when they said nothing, yet you KNEW some sort of understanding had passed between them. Their love scenes were passionate and tasteful. I loved Donald Sutherland as Ada's father. Kathy Baker captures the stoicism and stalwart nature of Ada's neighbor Sally Swanger. I loved Giovanni Ribisi as the money hungry Junior, and Natalie Portman will bring tears to a few eyes as the lonely young widow trying to survive a hard winter with her baby. Philip Seymour Hoffman is an excellent Veasey, a priest Inman meets on the journey to Cold Mountain. When Inman meets him, Veasey is attempting to dredge up the courage to kill his pregnant lover--whom he has drugged and stolen from her home in the middle of the night-so the townspeople won't realize what a lecher he is.

There was one thing that threw the movie off for me. Renee Zellweger plays Ruby, a strong young woman who comes to help Ada gain control over the house (she's being terrorized by a rooster when Ruby shows up). Ruby becomes Ada's teacher in all things pertaining to country life and running a farm. Zellweger did a nice job getting across the conflicted way Ruby felt in regards to her father, the fiddle playing Stobrod, who abandoned her repeatedly when she was a child. Their relationship was touching. But while Zellweger provided some much-needed comic relief, her acting was COMPLETELY OVER THE TOP. She did not so much "steal scenes" as she hurled herself into them and shoved everyone else out of the way. I did see a few reviewers (a precious few-most people seemed to think she was brilliant and deserves an Academy Award) who felt less would've been more. The movie is not meant to be hilarious, and her scenes felt too contrived--every time she came onto the screen, people would start to chuckle, knowing something "amusing" was going to happen. To me, she wasn't amusing so much as just overreaching her role. I was especially frustrated when she RUINED the moment at the end of the film when Inman is finally expressing his feelings for Ada.

One of the most touching aspects of the film is when you think about the spirit of the characters in it. No one was rich; they all struggled to make it through a horrible experience with few resources of their own. Yet they were still willing to give food off their own tables (and out of their children's mouths) in order to keep some stranger from going hungry. That kind of attitude and camaraderie was simply unforgettable. Go see the movie, but don't miss out on reading the book.

As a Civil War buff, I am glad to see someone doing their homework at the seige of Petersburg. The crater turned out to be a disaster for the Union army and was very accurately depicted in Cold Mountain, right down to Confederate soldiers throwing their "bayonet-fixed" muskets like spears into the mass of humanity. This scene is bloody, but not as much so as the first 20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan.

But anyway, good acting with a star-studded cast. Be warned, the movie will likely be easier to follow if you have read the book first. There are plenty of flashbacks, etc., especially in the first half of the movie, and the movie may appear to "jump around" a bit unless you're already familiar with the book. So read the book, or see the movie twice. There are about a half-dozen major scenes where the movie diverges from the book, some for time, some for dramatic affect. These are tolerable, except the scene involving Teague's homeguard band with the Swangers was not at all in the book (again, great for dramatics though). Renee Zellweger as Ruby is fantastic. Veasey (Philip Seymour Hoffman) also has some great one-liners. Georgia Boy (Jack White) is also very good (his name turned about to be Reid at the end of the book). Having not read the cast beforehand, I was surprised to see Natalie Portman (Queen Amadala) as Sara. I thought Ray Winstone did an excellent job as the ruthless Teague, who in true life was the leader of a homeguard band in the NC mountains. I wish the movie would have brought out one of his main companions better - the bizarre, blond-headed boy (named Birch in the book.) Although of fighting age in the movie, I got the impression in the book that Birch was too young to be a soldier, barely older than a drummer boy. The crew did an excellent job in casting Ethan Suplee (Pangle) for the movie - just like my mind pictured him in the book. Also, I did think the movie (and the book) brought out the overall character of the "very-rural" south during the Civil War. Guerilla fighting, locals not trusting their own homeguard, the unimaginable hardships, even the uneducated status of many people back then. One last thing that I would have loved to see in the movie which would have followed the book exactly, would be a scene involving Jude Law (Inman) pistol whipping Giovanni Ribisi (Junior) within an inch of his life. If you haven't seen the movie - I won't give away why, but you'll see why. Little revenge factor there.

As a sidenote, as Ada, Ruby and Sally Swanger were walking home one night, Ada accurately pointed out Orion, Gemini and Canis Major in close proximity to each other as they properly are. Again, someone did their homework. If you like action, some romance, some Civil War gore, this movie is for you.

The characters in this movie spend a great deal of time searching for food. And proclaiming that they are hungry. Which in some respects was indicative of the desperate times they lived in. It also involves some off-shoots of the digestive process, namely the defrocked preacher suffering acute constipation and a member of the traveling troubadours led by Renée Zellweger's dad eating some less than digestible wild game and later summoning Ralph... There are alot of hungry people in this movie.

There are two concurrent levels of the story. One involves Jude Law trying to find his way back from the horrors of the Civil War to Nicole Kidman. The other is Nicole Kidman wondering if Law will make it back to her. In his travels, Law talks to those he encounters about his quest to return to Kidman.

One person Law talks to about this is an elderly woman living in a gypsy-style setting who temporarily takes him in. She is somewhat unique as she proclaims that everything she needs can be derived from a goat...interesting concept. In one scene, he talks at length about finding his way back home. She sits and listens and looks as if she might nod off. Eventually, she gives him something to sleep... or to end his discussion about going home before she nods off.

Throughout the movie, Kidman is harassed by the Home Guard, a motley collection of "stay-at homers" who travel the countryside looking for Confederate deserters and generally making a nuisance of themselves. A younger member of the Home Guard bears a striking resemblance to a young Edgar Winter. As an alternate ending, instead of the Winter look-a-like plugging our hero and dashing Kidman's hopes for a permanent reunion, he could have put down his guns and hooked up with Zellweger's dad's musical group and an earlier version of the classic instrumental "Frankenstein" might of been born a la southern style.

A couple of semi-noticeable gaffes in this film...In one, Law takes an early-appearing, copper plate likeness of Kidman to carry off to war with him and places it in an envelope with a self-stick adhesive flap similiar to what you get your dough back from at a bank drive-through window.

In another, Kidman's father, Donald Sutherland passes away and she opts to wear his large, oversize black coat in rememberance. As the movie progresses to the final scenes, the oversize, ill-fitting coat she is wearing is gradually and magically transformed into a trim-sized, finely tailored, cut close at the waist wrap that looks right off the rack at Bloomingdale's.

In the final scene, everyone who has survived the war, hunger, tainted meat and the Home Guard or bothered to stick around until the end of the movie are outside sitting around a table...eating. Like I said, there are alot of hungry people in this movie...

**1/2 Based on the best-selling novel by Charles Frazier, Anthony Minghella's "Cold Mountain" is, like his earlier snooze-fest, "The English Patient," one of those highbrow historical romances that only a Motion Picture Academy member could love. Jude Law and Nicole Kidman play Inman and Ada, two Southerners whose budding romance is cut short when he goes off to fight in the Civil War. Though the two "lovers" barely know one another, she spends years pining away for him, while he, eventually, deserts the battlefield in order to get back to her. When her minister father dies unexpectedly, Ada, who has hitherto led a very sheltered life, is forced to fend for herself on the land he left her. Eventually joining her in that endeavor is a feisty young woman named Ruby, played with a whole host of annoying, self-conscious mannerisms by the usually reliable Renee Zellweger.

In ambiance and plot, "Cold Mountain" feels an awful lot like a warmed over "Gone With the Wind," right down to the Southern-belle-forced-to-demean-herself-to-survive scenario. The difference is that the two main characters in "Cold Mountain" are completely uninteresting as people and thoroughly unconvincing as lovers. In a film in which the driving force is supposed to be obsessive passion, it's odd that the romance is laid out in such lukewarm and sketchy terms. It's hard to believe that a young man would risk execution for treason trying to get back to a woman he barely knows - and it's even harder for the audience to work up much personal stake in the outcome. Ada is like a magnet drawing Inman to her, but, for the life of us, we can't figure out the attraction. Law does reasonably well as a sort of anti-hero version of Odysseus, but Kidman fails to score as a charisma-challenged Penelope - or Scarlett O'Hara, if you prefer.

Another problem with "Cold Mountain" is that it overdoses on Southern-fried cornpone and backwater moonshine. Every time Inman or Ada turn a corner, they seem to be confronted by yet another "colorful" Southern character - be it a fornicating preacher, a clan of promiscuous hillbillies, a fiddler-playing, ne'er-do-well daddy, or even the over-the-top Ruby herself, whose way with a folksy aphorism, after some initial appeal, eventually ends up setting the teeth on edge. The film is a strangely schizophrenic one in that, while the lead characters are underdeveloped to the point of blandness, the secondary characters are overdrawn to the point of buffoonery. The film, after awhile, begins to resemble the casting call for an out-of-town revival of Tennessee Williams.

There are a few good things about "Cold Mountain." It doesn't shy away from some of the more brutal aspects of war and it deals head-on with the struggles the Southerners had to undergo being on the losing side. Moreover, some of the vistas are attractive. But, apart from a few effective moments, "Cold Mountain," is little more than a boring, meandering, high-toned soap opera, just the kind of movie that makes Academy members sit up and take notice come nomination time (the film garnered seven nominations and one win - for Zellweger's performance). The rest of us are more likely to just curl up and go to sleep instead.

My immediate notion was not that "Cold Mountain" needed to be cut, especially because I can see where some characters and situations needed to be fleshed out a bit more, but rather than the pacing needed to be picked up a bit. But director Anthony Minghella has deliberately slowed the pace of this film, to reflect both the measured progress that Inman (Jude Law) is making trying to get back to Cold Mountain, and the long period of time that Ada Monroe (Nicole Kidman) has been waiting for him to return. Before I go farther, I should point out that "The English Patient" has the distinction of being the Oscar winning film from my lifetime that has most left me cold, so I am beginning to think that Minghella and I are just on totally different wavelengths.

I really got the sense that Charles Frazier's novel was lurking behind this film, because there had to be more to the power of love than binds Inman and Ada together, despite the fact that their relationship before the start of the Civil War consisted of an exchange of tintypes and less than a minute of last minute kissing. I fully understand why the picture and the idea of Ada would sustain Inman during the trauma of being a Confederate soldier for four years, but Ada's steadfastness is rather puzzling, based on smoldering looks and very few words from the man she has decided is to be her mate. She does declare at one point that she will not leave because her "last thread of courage is to wait" for Inman's return, but the film does not provide much substance to give weight to those words beyond the fact she stays and waits. I would think the novel provides more, but perhaps I am wrong on that score.

The Battle of the Crater sequence that opens the film is fairly impressive; it was filmed in Romania which explains why so few of the Union soldiers were blacks (the battle was notorious because the Yankees made the error of running down into the crater, without ladders, instead of running around the giant hole in the Confederate defenses, and the Rebels refused to let the black troops surrender, slaughtering them instead). In addition to the giant melee of battle there are also quick telling details, such as a soldier having his clothes blown off of him by the explosion. The chief asset of the film is a superb supporting cast that includes Kathy Baker, Donald Sutherland, Brenand Gleeson, James Gammon, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Natalie Portman. To give you an idea of how deep this cast goes, "Cold Mountain" is a film that has Jena Malone in a bit part.

Several things distracted me from enjoying this film more. The first was that I really did not have a good visual sense of Cold Mountain, so that every time Inman gazes at mountains I have no clue if he is getting any closer to home. Compare this with another film sure to be nominated for Best Picture where you know Frodo and Sam are heading for the mountain with the smoke and fire coming out of it. The second was that the villain of the piece, Teague (Ray Winstone), who once owned all of the land on Cold Mountain but is now running the Home Guard as his own gang of thugs, perplexed me. On the one hand he seems overly concerned with hunting down deserters, which I say knowing that this is a way of his confiscating property. But on the other hand he wants Ada and she spends years on a farm by herself and with one other woman for company, and it never occurs to him to just go and take her and be done with it. Finally, there was a scene in the middle of the film where the Home Guard goes after some deserters and I found myself thinking that men who had served four years in the Army of Northern Virginia should be able to take these local clowns. The film vindicated my belief, but it took a while to prove the point.

Renée Zellweger as Ruby Thewes, the country gal who shows up to help the delicate Ada save the farm is a sure bet for an Oscar nomination for Supporting Actress and would have to be considered the frontrunner. Her performance runs counter to the measured pace of the film overall and her poetic description of the war's insanity much be a reach for her character, but is still memorable. Law has little dialogue in his scenes, but turns in the best performance of his career working mainly with his eyes. The competition for Best Actor will be fierce this year, but he might be able to wrangle a nomination. The same can be said for Kidman, especially if Mirimax decides to put its weight behind this film. "Cold Mountain" is one of those movies where your expectations are so high that falling short might it seem a lesser film than it really happens to be. If this is an Oscar winning film, it is one that does it more by the numbers than by the force of the cinematic narrative that has been created.