Cold Mountain Review
by Jon Popick (jpopick AT sick-boy DOT com)February 21st, 2004
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Cold Mountain is a movie that has "Oscar" written all over it yet doesn't falter under the weighty expectations that were placed upon it as early as last year. It's an $85 million epic (the most expensive ever produced by Miramax) with a huge cast full of Oscar winners and Oscar nominees - past, present and no doubt future. It's based on a very popular novel and was adapted by a guy (Anthony Minghella) who knows a thing or two about turning books into successful films (The English Patient and The Talented Mr. Ripley - both multiple Oscar nominees).
Too often, big films like this turn out to be star-studded flops (like The Human Stain and The Shipping News). The only thing Mountain has against it is that it's one of two difficult, depressing, but completely satisfying and critically praised films to see a wide release during the week of Christmas (the other is 21 Grams). The gloomy subject matter might drive people to <gulp> Cheaper by the Dozen, but anyone who chooses Mountain will be glad they did. I read the book. I knew what was going to happen. And I was still riveted and surprised by just about everything on the screen.
The story is set over a four-year period during the Civil War and centers on two characters who, despite sharing no more than a couple dozen words, fall for each other like only movie characters can. Jude Law (Road to Perdition) is Inman, the parentless carpenter, and Nicole Kidman (Stain) is Ada, the foo-foo princess, bringing to mind a period version of the Claire and Bender romance from The Breakfast Club. Ada has just moved to Cold Mountain, North Carolina with her ailing father (Donald Sutherland, The Italian Job). Inman fell for Ada before she even arrived in town but can barely string together a sentence once she actually gets there.
Eventually, the two share a passionate kiss, but it takes place about two seconds before Inman leaves for the war. "I'll be waiting for you!" Ada calls to a departing Inman, fully expecting the whole thing to pan out in about a month...which it doesn't, as many of you already know. We don't get to see much of the war, but what little we do witness immediately trumps the very best scene from The Last Samurai.
Inman is shot in the neck, and after nearly dying in both battle and a hospital, he decides to hightail it back to Cold Mountain and Ada. Technically, he's a deserter, and must be careful to avoid detection by the Home Guard (led by a very creepy Ray Winstone and an even creepier Charlie Hunnam). Inman's journey, which many insist on describing as Odyssey-esque, involves a number of strange and dangerous situations, such as a philandering minister (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a chain gang, a family of horny women, and an advice-spilling goat farmer (Eileen Atkins). His commitment to Ada prevents him from having sex with a handful of Dixie chicks, including a lactating Natalie Portman (Inman! Say it ain't so!).
Meanwhile, Ada's father dies, leaving her alone in a giant house with increasingly disheveled hair, yearning for both Inman (her letters to him become the film's narration) and food (because the ability to speak French doesn't exactly help you manage a farm by yourself). So a neighbor (Kathy Baker) sends over the no-nonsense Ruby (Renée Zellweger) to help Ada take care of things. Zellweger delivers the scene-stealingest performance of the year as the heavily animated, hard-working list-maker and test-giver (and a pre-militant feminist's feminist). Before long, Ruby has Ada, like Paris Hilton on The Simple Life, milking cows and mending fences.
Our main characters here are on two very different journeys. Inman's is literal and physical, while Ada's is figurative. Inman's, though, is much more substantial, as portrayed by Law. Kidman isn't bad so much as she is unbelievable in the part (the transformation of her character doesn't work nearly as well in the film as it does in the book). Zellweger is a hoot, as are much of the supporting cast (I didn't even get to mention Giovanni Ribisi, Brendan Gleeson, Ethan Suplee, Jack White, Taryn Manning, Melora Walters, Jena Malone, Cillian Murphy, or Lucas Black).
The production, which was shot in Transylvania, was crafted by Minghella's usual cronies: Oscar winner Gabriel Yared wrote the score (along with song contributions from T-Bone Burnett and Jack White), Oscar winner John Seale made each frame beautiful, and Oscar winner Walter Murch cobbled it all together. But the real hero is Minghella, who manages to pull off the very difficult task of creating the palpable romance which fuels Mountain, despite having leads that don't appear together for much of the picture.
2:26 - R for violence and sexuality
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