Cold Mountain Not as Frigid as it Sounds
By Morgan Wilding

Cold Mountain, one of the last films to be released in 2003, stars Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, and Renée Zellweger in the epic story of one man's fight to return from the Civil War and his lover's attempts to keep her head above water in the hard times that the War brings on the Southern economy.

W. P. Inman (Law), a young Southern man, is struck by Cupid's arrow when Ada Monroe (a strikingly beautiful Kidman) moves from Charleston into his small town of Cold Mountain, North Carolina, along with her father, Reverend Monroe (Donald Sutherland). Their attraction to each other is aborted, however, when war breaks out between the North and South. In the opening shots of the film, Inman is wounded in battle and shipped to a military hospital three years into the War Between the States. A letter received from Ada telling him to return home sends him out a window into the Confederate night, becoming a deserter and beginning his quest to return to his love.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, Ada's father, in a well-acted but short-lived performance by Donald Sutherland, has died sitting in a chair, leaving the city-educated Ada to fend for herself. Her past education, being until recently a resident of a city, leaves her unable to fend for herself, and her farm is soon overrun with vegetation and roaming animals. She seems doomed, relying on the kindness of her neighbors to sustain her, until Ruby Thewes (Zellweger) appears practically out of nowhere and, in exchange for basically equal working and management of the farm, agrees to show Ada how to run a farm.

I confess I have not read the book that Cold Mountain was adapted from (written by Charles Frazier), but surely the character of Ruby could not have been merely intended for comic relief. The scrappy, hands-on girl becomes the films primary source of humor and, while well-acted by the up-and-coming Renée Zellweger, is unfortunately written as one-dimensional and flat despite the actresses best efforts to make her otherwise. In fact the movie's entire supporting cast, with the exception perhaps of Reverend Vesey (Philip Seymour Hoffman), manages to be at once flat and vivid, mainly due to the stupendous supporting cast, which includes the luscious Natalie Portman (The Professional, Star Wars: Episodes I and II), the intriguing and refreshingly multidimensional Kathy Baker (The Cider House Rules, Door to Door, "Boston Public"), the eager Giovanni Ribisi (Saving Private Ryan, Lost in Translation), the talented Brendan Gleeson (Braveheart, Gangs of New York), and the clumsy but pleasant Ethan Suplee (American History X, John Q).

The piece is remarkably well handled by writer-director Anthony Minghella, whose previous films include The English Patient and The Talented Mr. Ripley (both of which he claims credit for both writing and directing). Not having read the critically acclaimed novel from which the book is ported, I cannot speak for the directness of the translation from book to script, but the film adaptation does a very good job with only a few rather minor flaws. The romance scenes when Ada and Inman are finally reunited are perhaps two minutes too long, and the sex scene displayed a tastelessness that manages to detract from the rest of the movie.

Despite these forgiveable faults, however, Cold Mountain, which has been nominated for 8 Golden Globe awards despite it's only having been released for less than a week, is a well-above-average film that has glimpsed perfection and managed to come close, if not to quite connect with its potential. Once released, this film will definitely find its way into my DVD library, and may well be the best movie to come out in 2003.

Pros: Strong acting, directing, compelling story, incredible cast.
Cons: Falls apart a tad towards the end.
Bottom Line: Possibly the best film of the year. Definitely worth your $10.