Yar, you be here: Cold Mountain > Customer Reviews

Cold Mountain Customer Reviews (49 - 51 of 87 Reviews)

Cold at the core
Cold Mountain has all the ingredients of a great movie, but it is ultimately done in by its sense of self importance.

The film which is adapted from Charles Frazier's novel of the same title, concerns two lovers (Nicole Kidman and Jude Law) who are forced apart by the outbreak of the Civil War. While some flashbacks are devoted to their brief courtship, most of the movie takes place during wartime. Law's central challenge is to return to Kidman, while hers is to keep hope alive that he will return. The eccentric characters they encounter along the way are what ultimately keeps this movie afloat.

I say this movie's attempts to be an epic ultimately hurt it for the following reasons. First, at three hours, it was too long. The movie is packed with supporting actors depicted in scenes which are not central to the overall plot. While most of these scenes work well due to excellent performances from supporting cast members such as Donald Sutherland, Philip Seymour Hoffman and especially Renee Zellweger, a couple are begging to be cut. Most notable are the scenes with Natalie Portman, who's acting is as flat as ever. The central purpose of these scenes of temptation seems to be to show the extent of Law's love for Kidman and his overall goodness, but a better movie could have brought out these qualities in less obvious, distracting and sentimental ways.

Unfortunately the manipulation, melodrama, and self-consciousness are not limited to that scene. Several other potentially powerful scenes were rendered impotent by being over-stylized. The use of the tired symbolism of birds taking flight, with building musical crescendo, during a key scene at the end provides but one example of such a distraction that abruptly yanked me out of the movie.

Another central problem with this film is the lack of heat between Law and Kidman; his acting in particular was unconvincing. By the end I was only mildly interested in whether Law and Kidman were able to get back together; I felt any scenes they might have together wouldn't match the energy of scenes involving the supporting actors, who frankly stole the show.

But thank goodness they did steal the show. The movie borrows from a tradition in the traveling epic that dates back at least as far as The Outlaw Josie Wales (and probably a lot further), by introducing eccentric characters in seemingly the most random of places. Some of the characters here are as enjoyable as those encountered in the former. But the same cannot by any means be said of the movie as a whole, which, like the New York Knicks, lacks a solid center.

Cold Mountain- a film that you should not miss--4.18 STARS
This film is not what I expected. I thought it was going to be alot of civil war battles and a corny love story, but it wasn't. This movie does a great job of presenting two seperate stories. One story is that of Jude Laws character who leaves the bloodshed of the civil war and his long and exciting journey home to his love(played by Nicole Kidman). Kidmans character meanwhile does her best to survive and keep the home fires burning while she waits for her love(played by Law). Also included into the story is a group of heartless badguys, that will stir your vengance emotions.

This film has something that everyone can enjoy. For women this film has a great strong female cast and story line. For men, this film has somewhat of a western Unforgiven type feel at times. The entire cast was perfect! Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Renée Zellweger give amazing performances. Kidman looks better then ever in this film and Zellweger played a fantastic supporting role in this film!(worthy of a best supporting actress award).

acting=5 stars
battle FX= 3.5 stars
ending=4 stars
atmosphere=5 stars
Directing and Editing=3.5 stars
storyline=4 stars
replay value=4.5 stars
soundtrack=4 stars

OVERALL=solid 4.18 stars
After a terrible year of movies last year, do yourself a favor and see this film.

-RATED R for nudity, some blood and violence-

Superb film, AWFUL DVD transfer
I thought Cold Mountain was the best film of 2003. Anthony Minghella fashioned an extremely moving, visually lovely, and richly literate adaptation of Charles Frazier's novel. At the center is an unusual love story -- of two people who barely know each other, and yet who, with the memories of a few magical moments, invent a profound love between them in order to survive in the war-torn world around them.

Jude Law gives a beautiful and subtly expressive performance as Inman, the taciturn and deeply inward central character. Nicole Kidman is superb as Ada as is Renee Zelwegger in her Oscar-winning performance as Ruby. The relationship between Ada and Ruby becomes one of the movie's most moving elements. The massive supporting cast is filled with some of the best character actors in the industry.

Despite its old-fashioned epic richness, Cold Mountain is also filled with moments of extreme violence, which are shockingly and wrenchingly staged by Minghella. In addition, it's also a deeply musical film, with a haunting score by Gabriel Yared and numerous gorgeous songs from the old south. It's a shame that most critics condescended to this film, and chose to review it in the context of Miramax's (admittedly distasteful and relentless) Oscar campaigning. It is not strikingly original or free from the occasional Hollywood cliche. But it is lovingly made, beautifully crafted, and carefully paced. That's more than can be said for most films - Hollywood or independent - these days.

The 5 stars are for the film. The DVD transfer is - to my unprofessional eyes - crap. I'm astonished that Miramax would release such a visually stunning movie in such a grainy, unfocused, unvibrant transfer. It's a shame, and Miramax should be embarrassed.

Previous Page

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

Next Page