Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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161 of 182 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A poetic tale of love, loss, and the will to survive, January 31, 2004
"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.
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58 of 67 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Breathtaking Journey of Love., January 18, 2004
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:)
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25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Food...Frankenstein...and the Home Guard, December 23, 2004
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...
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Realistic, Book-Faithful, Personal, Non-Glam, Accurate, Entertaining, Educational, Quality-filled, Well-Acted, Under-rated Gem!
As a guy who's lived all his 45 years in North Carolina, I know this jewel of a film gets so much flack for absolutely no reason.
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Published 2 months ago by William K. Lasley
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by Charles Frazier
~ Jack White
DVD ~ Tom Cruise
by Charles Frazier
DVD ~ Nicole Kidman
on 
