Cold Mountain Review

By Amy Somensky Feb 19, 2004, 15:07 GMT

Anthony Minghella was lucky, when making his latest film he had a beautiful story to begin with. Now we had to trust that he wouldn’t ruin that story when adapting the book to film. Surprisingly, he has created a screenplay that follows the book fairly closely, and more importantly captures the spirit of Charles Frazier’s book.

Civil War buffs beware, Cold Mountain is not a Civil War film per say. Yes it has battle scenes, but the heart of the story is one man’s journey, and the hardship suffered on the home front. The man, Inman, after being wounded decides to walk home to his love, Ada, whom he left behind three years earlier. Ada, after the death of her father, is left to tend his farm all on her own without a clue of how to do it, until a young drifter, Ruby comes to help her.

A Battle Scene in Cold Mountain

Visually, Cold Mountain is breathtaking. John Searle is the Director of Photography. He has also worked on The English Patient, Rainman, and Witness. The mountains of Transylvania Romania served as the American South. Unless you are very familiar with the area, you would never know it wasn’t filmed in the U.S. Minghella has said that it was very difficult to find a vast area of land in America that has not been cultivated or processed is any way. An entire southern town was built and created from the ground in Romania. The battle sequences are very different to any I have seen. They are like dancing, very theatrical, but gritty and real.

The meat of Cold Mountain is it’s stellar cast and supporting cast. It is busting with Oscar Winners, Oscar Nominees, and veteran stars.

Jude Law as Inman

Jude Law plays the wounded Inman, and holds the entire piece together. Had he failed in this portrayal the entire movie would have come down with him. His character transforms beautifully over the screen from the innocent southern boy to the war weathered broken man. This will push him into the fore front of acting. He now has many films on the horizon. I have always known he was a great actor, but now everyone else will.

Nicole Kidman is as beautiful and stunning as ever. Her portrayal as Ada is sparkling, but it is not much of a stretch of her acting ability. We all know that Nicole is beautiful and stunning. She is an immensely talented actress, and that talent really wasn’t stretched in this role.

Nicole Kidman as Ada

Renee Zelwegger as Ruby

Renee Zellwegger as Ruby is the spirit of the film. She steals every scene she is in and comes in at just the right time to lighten the mood. She has created such a unique and special creature that I forgot I was watching Renee Zellwegger. The portrayal was perfect for the character, very gritty and slightly over the top. It should earn her her first Oscar.

Natalie Portman as Sara

Natalie Portman leads the supporting cast. She plays Sara, a young girl widowed by the civil war, left to care for her baby. It has been a really long time since Natalie has been given a role that displays any real emotion, I had forgotten how good of an actress she really is.

Phillip Seymour Hoffman plays Veasey, a disgraced reverend, who tags along with Inman. He is deliberately annoying. Every utterance that comes from his mouth is pure hypocrisy concerning his faith. Jack White makes his acting debut as Georgia. He is surprisingly good for his first gig. Maybe if his music doesn’t workout he could have a career in movies. Rounding out the cast are Giovanni Ribisi, Eileen Atkins, Kathy Baker, Jena Malone, Donald Sutherland, Brendan Gleeson, and Ray Winstone.

Cold Mountain has everything a good epic movie should have, colorful characters, love, war, tragedy. It should do well at Oscar time particularly in the acting categories, but more than that it is a story of kindness, faith and sacrifice. It proves that hope is a very strong thing even in the hardest of times.