3/4  Hot Mountain, More Like
Much better than I thought. A friend who was southern and liked Jude Law recommended it to me, so I thought she inflated the rating. However, it holds up. I can't decided if Renee Zellweger is annoying or wellcast but the rest of the elem... (read full)

4/4  Cold Mountain Quick Review
I was freezing while watching this. I love Nicole Kidman and truly, no one portrays American history better than Australians and the British.

2.5/4  Cold Mountain Quick Review
I tried to like this movie as much as possible, but I never really got into it. It doesn't help that I really think little of Nicole Kidman. This is a good film that will be great to other people, but only OK for me.

3/4  Cold Mountain Quick Review
A long movie, but a good one. It has a glimpse of the Civil War that may never have been seen, along with a really good yearning for a couple who barely know each other. Great performances all around. It's only downfall is the length.

2/5 A bag of tiny cubic zirconias...
  by Ana Mardoll (United States)
Cold Mountain / B0001MDP3G

*Spoilers*

I just know this review is going to get buried in "unhelpful" votes, but I truly hated this movie. I can't imagine what anyone could get out of this movie - the depictions of the actual war on display are either non-existent or cartoonishly exaggerated to attempt some kind of heavy-handed good vs. evil narrative. The 'love' story is laughable, the characters are fantastically annoying and irritating, and I'm convinced that Zellweger got her Academy Award on the grounds that her whole character is based around mocking the 'main' characters and highlighting how stupid and useless they are (which is, for what it's worth, a pretty awesome reason to win an award).

Let's deal with the war first - I *think* someone mentioned, briefly, in this three-hour movie that slavery might have something to do with this whole war-thing. It's good that mention is made, because otherwise I might have accidentally believed that the war was orchestrated by fate to keep Inman from Ada. Slavery and its ugly implications are pretty much NEVER mentioned in this 'epic', and the one time African Americans are allowed on the screen, they're immediately shuffled off within 30 seconds. God forbid that black people be allowed screen time when we paid money to see Jude Law and Nicole Kidman - naked, no less.

There *is*, to be fair, a more immediate reason for the war than as a plot device to keep Inman out of Ada's eager arms, and that's so that Ada can constantly hover at the edges of potential abuse at the hands of the local Blatantly Evil Guy (BEG). The BEG wants Ada's property and, by extension, Ada herself, and decides that the most effective way to woo a lonely, vulnerable, naive young woman is to show up at her house once a week and scream at her, rather than try the more risky scheme of shaving his ratty beard and bringing by some flowers and/or beef jerky as presents. You can understand him being confused, though, because he appears to have coasted through life on pure charisma - the only explanation *I* can think of for why, when he and his small group of thugs start terrorizing the entire village and no one so much as peeps in protest. Well, there is *one* more reason I can think of - that in a reality-based, shade-of-gray world where no one is 100% good or evil, the tension between the security patrols and deserters was fraught with all sorts of moral ambiguity and difficult choices - at least a few of the deserters were a legitimate source of concern, what with the poaching, raiding, occasional rapes, and just generally being a drain on an already stretched infrastructure. But why would we consider difficult moral questions like the implications of helping starving soldiers while that food is needed for the starving locals - such things would take up valuable screen time and we've got an epic love story to unfold!

As much as I hate movies where the hero and heroine inexplicably fall inextricably in love with each other in the first five minutes and then spend the rest of the movie declaring their undying love for this near-stranger, "Cold Mountain" taught me that the effect is even *more* irritating when the characters continually acknowledge how much this conceit doesn't make sense. Thus are we given Inman and Ada, two lovers who are drawn to one another by their mutual awkward manners, muddy accents, and impossibly wide eyes. Ada is a refined gentlewoman without a single useful skill, apparently because cooking was considered 'beneath' her station, an odd feeling to nurture in a family that ostensibly is against slavery. I guess you can be against making other people do your dirty work without actually wanting to, you know, do your own dirty work. Inman is the perfect opposite of Ada, in that he can do pretty much anything, but never talks - an Informed Trait, because by gum he will *not* shut up about how much he loves Ada even though, he repeatedly reminds us, he doesn't know the first thing about her. Seriously, he doesn't know her middle name, what her childhood pet was, or whether or not she's allergic to shellfish - but he's willing to cross the entire country three times over to fling himself into her arms. Isn't that romantic?

Indeed, I can't decide if the best parts of "Cold Mountain" are the *painfully* awkward dialogue between the two lovers ("What color is the sky when it rains?!" and "[Our love] is like a bag of tiny diamonds!!") or Renee Zellweger brutally mocking said dialogue. Poor Zellweger is the one bright spot in this movie, as she shows up to rescue Ada from starvation, while proceeding to harshly chew her out for everything from mooning over a guy she's barely met to starving to death rather than figure out how to kill and skin a rooster to lounging in bed like a queen all day - basically, everything that the viewer would LIKE to say to Ada, but is denied the chance to. My one regret is that Zellweger couldn't have had a twin sister to follow Inman around and gripe HIM out for being such an idiot, but I suppose the Wise Old Woman of the Woods character does a fairly good job of it, even if it does mean we have to listen to *more* Wangst about how Inman lurves Ada even though he doesn't *know* Ada, etc. Really, if anything could have made this movie better, it would have been more Zellweger.

This is probably as good a place as any to insert my plea that Hollywood stop making characters deliberately dense for plot-furthering purposes. When your friend and neighbor has been tortured and nearly killed for 'harboring deserters' by the local BEG, and (1) you've been harboring deserters habitually (and carelessly!) for the last few months and (2) the BEG openly hates you and makes no secret of his obsession with you, it should at least OCCUR to you that you might be in a smidgen of danger. It should definitely occur to the aforementioned tortured neighbor who cheerily hangs out with these new deserters. That's just bad writing.

Oh, yeah, and you get to see Kidman nude in this movie. It's for all of 30 seconds, but that's still 30 seconds that *could* have been devoted to good dialogue and characterization and it wasn't, so it's a waste. But that's just my opinion.

~ Ana Mardoll

4/5 Solid, but flawed adaptation of Charles Frazier's classic novel
  by James A. Strong (Atlanta, Georgia United States)
It's easy to applaud writer/director Anthony Minghella for undertaking the daunting task of adapting Charles Frazier's beloved, award winning novel to the silver screen. After transforming tricky material into a lush, romantic, Oscar-winning epic with "The English Patient," he seems to be the logical choice for the job. You can even feel him pulling at a lot of the same strings to make "Cold Mountain" as great as that previous effort.

But in the end, it simply isn't.

The trouble begins with the love story between Inman (Jude Law) and Ada (Nicole Kidman). In the book, the romance between the two is portrayed with subtlety--it is hinted at a lot more than it is described in detail. As Minghella recognizes, readers are a lot more apt to accept subtlety instead of outright explanation than a viewing audience. Unfortunately, he tries too hard to have it both ways: to both capture the fleeting essence of their love affair before Inman leaves to fight in the Civil War as Frazier depicts it, as well as take some creative liberties with it to give the viewer a reason to feel the longing that the characters feel. As a result, the early scenes between Ada and Inman are clumsy and forced.

The good news is that once the film starts following the book, it gets much better. This is when, after recovering from a near-lethal injury to his neck, Inman abandons his post and begins his trek back home to Ada. From this point on, the film earns the book's reputation as being an imaginative retelling of Homer's "Odyssey." Like the main character of that classic work of mythology, Inman encounters many trials and tribulations on the road to his beloved. These include many close encounters with the home guard--a self-appointed group of enforcers who hunt deserters and runaway slaves, the temptation of sirens (in this version, they take the form of cackling, backwoods harpies), and starvation.

Meanwhile, back in Cold Mountain, Ada has troubles of her own. Unable to properly maintain her deceased father's (Donald Sutherland) farm, she finds herself close to starvation, as well. She also faces temptation in the form of a suitor who is an ersatz captain of the home guard. He tries to get her to abandon her hopes of Inman's return and allow him to take care of her. Given her impoverished and malnourished way of life, it is an attractive offer, even if the man who is offering it is not.

Still, she manages to survive on the goodwill of her neighbors and the local townspeople. Then Ruby Thewes (Renee Zellweger) shows up to help her turn around the farm. Zellweger provides the film with its few light moments and works hard to steal every scene she appears in. Ruby is a single-minded woman who is always in motion and is constantly making verbal checklists of things to do.

The split narrative between what is going on in Inman and Ada's lives balances out nicely. On both counts, we get an intimate view of a civilization that has been deeply fractured by the devastation of the Civil War. In a particularly poignant episode, Inman receives food and shelter from a young widow (Natalie Portman) who is nursing a sick baby. This is the one scene from the book that Minghella translates perfectly. And Portman gives a heart-breaking performance as someone not far removed from girlhood whose every day is a struggle to survive.

Moments like that one are the film's saving graces. They are also reminders of how uneven the rest of it is. Although Law gives a nicely understated performance as a simple man who is stoic and shy, yet vulnerable to the charms of true love as well as the horrors of war, his lapses with his southern accent prove to be a bit distracting. On that count, Kidman is an even bigger offender. She is able to emote effectively, but her on-again/off-again accent works against her. Of the cast, Zellweger keeps the steadiest southern drawl, but her overall work her is showy and stunt-like.

For all its faults, the film will move you at certain points. Harrowing images, like when a young soldier stands so close to an explosion that the blast wave rips the seams of his clothing, leave in imprint on your memory. And, I am happy to report that none of the emotional impact of the book's ending has been compromised.

Does the film adequately overcome its flaws enough to be considered truly great, like its source material? Are the artistic missteps overshadowed enough by the things it gets right?

Almost, but not quite.


5/5 Wonderful film adaption
  by Amanda (USA)
This was a very good movie based on the book by the same name. It is a little graphic as far as violence goes, and I did have to look away a few times, but the story line was excellent, and Renee Zellweger did a bang-up job as Ruby. In fact, here part, along with Jack White's were probably the best part. Nicole was a little off in this one, but Renee was in top form.

5/5 Realistic, Book-Faithful, Personal, Non-Glam, Accurate, Entertaining, Educational, Quality-filled, Well-Acted, Under-rated Gem!
  by William K. Lasley (Greensboro, N.C. United States)
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. The criticisms are: 1-It's not a real war movie. 2-It sympathizes with southerners. 3-It's a chick flick. 4-It's a low-key drama. 5-It was filmed in Europe. 6-Foreigners play the two leads. 7-It's not 101 percent faithful to the great novel. Look people, even if all of the above are true, this can still be a great film, and it is.

Zellwegger, for her endearing performance, so deserved her win as best supporting actress. The film ought to have won in other categories in which it was nominated. Kidman and Law are excellent. Cold Mountain is such a realistic depiction of home life during the Civil War. I've never seen a film as faithful to the original source material. The characters are people alive with their fear of the war. Guys will like the movie just as much as gals. There is an epic battle to satisfy the war buffs.

The producers and director do a wonderful job of convincing us that Romanian locations are actually Carolina terrain. If you want to experience what the Civil War was like for everyday people, this is it. Treat yourself to this valuable slice-of-life re-creation.

5/5 Great Movie & Service
  by Andrea Bearden-Kuhns (Carlsbad, CA United States)
I bought this for a relative who was reading the book, we had already seen the movie and enjoyed it.