Yar, you be here: Cold Mountain > Customer Reviews

Cold Mountain Customer Reviews (13 - 15 of 87 Reviews)

Crows Against the Snow
North Carolina author Charles Frazier's book gripped me and was a moving tale. When I saw the film, the story came flooding back like a lost acquaintance. I saw the film 3 times in the theatre, bought the DVD and have watched that multiple times. I connect with this movie. It is one of my favorite films. The many aspects of the film come together for me to make it more than the sum of its parts: more than a tale of romance, or the Civil War, or an epic journey, or even a political film touching on abuse of power.

Anthony Minghella who won the Oscar as Best Director of "The English Patient," served as executive director for another film starring Nicole Kidman ("The Interpreter"), and directed and was nominated for the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for "The Talented Mr. Ripley" that starred Jude Law, does a masterful job with combining these elements. Gabriel Yared's Oscar-nominated gorgeous musical score and John Seale's Oscar-nominated breathtaking cinematography give the picture both sonic and visual elegance. Best Songs Oscar nominees by T-Bone Burnett and Elvis Costello along with Jack White gave the film authentic mountain music. The images of the snow and the swooping crows are some of the most memorable film visuals for me, like watching moving paintings.

Some have said that the chemistry between Nicole Kidman and Jude Law didn't work. I find that amazing since it played so well for me! They don't have many scenes together, but the attraction and their separation in coming together were breathtaking. While Jude Law was actually rooting for Sean Penn to win the Oscar for "Mystic River," -- not to take anything away from Penn -- I rooted for his controlled, muted, and intensely brooding performance. Jude Law as Inman was one of the best performances I've seen and recalls the strength to internalize of another excellent actor, Paul Newman. When Law finally connects in that cabin and says, "I marry you; I marry you; I marry you," it is one of the most incredible screen moments.

Nicole Kidman's portrayal of Southern belle Ada Monroe who knows how to speak foreign languages and play piano but has no idea what to do with a chicken or how to plant vegetables is excellent. She reaches many emotional levels from the grief she feels over the loss of her father to her attraction to Inman to the endless waiting and uncertainty to hardships of wartime and fending off the advances of Teague. She well deserved her Oscar nomination.

Rene Zellweger as Ruby plays it broad and bubbly. She is a bright light of the film giving it common sense, practicality, and humor. In all of her work that I've seen from "The Cinderella Man" to "Bridget Jones' Diary," to "Chicago," Ruby is her most distinctive character; and Zellweger well deserved her Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

I watched "Closer," the Mike Nichols film that stars Natalie Portman and Jude Law, and then watched "Cold Mountain" which has Portman in a cameo as Sara whose baby Ethan is sick and whose husband has been killed. It's interesting to see the two together in these two different films.

Law comes upon Sara, spends the night and at her invitation slips platonically into her bed. When the Yankee soldiers come to rob her, Law saves her. The DVD deleted scene shows Law strapping the soldiers' bodies to the horses, sending them away, the baby's death and Sara's suicide. Having seen the film about 6 times before watching the deleted scenes, I think it made Inman's return to Ada all the more powerful as we think he had other choices that he did not pursue. But it does make the DVD scene quite interesting.

Ray Winstone who was in the Clive Owen "King Arthur" does a good job as the revolting Teague who hunts down & kills deserters. Ethan Suplee's performance as the heavyset mandolin player is priceless as we see his simple character not understand that he is about to be killed. Jack White of White Stripes plays Georgia, the boy that eventually marries Ruby. Donald Sutherland who is one of my favorite underrated actors has a nice cameo as the Reverend Monroe. Kathy Baker from TV's "Picket Fences" has a strong supporting part as Sally Swanger. Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Reverend Veasey has a nice supporting role as the constipated man of the cloth that is weak in ways of the flesh. Giovanni Ribisi as Junior who lures the convicts to his house full of women and then turns them over to the soldiers has a nice cameo. The woman who plays the lady with goats also does a nice job as does the creepy young blond bounty hunter. "Cold Mountain" is one of those films that moves me each time I watch it. The story, the performance, the look and feel of the film all make me say, "Bravo!"


Cold Mountain - 102-4169849-9449760
Anthony Minghella directs this tale based on the best-selling book about wounded Civil War soldier Inman (Jude Law) making the long, treacherous journey to his home in Cold Mountain, N.C. Along the way, he thinks of his love, Ada (Nicole Kidman), who has fought for sanity and her father's farm's survival while Inman has been gone, even with a brave young drifter named Ruby (Renee Zellweger, in an Oscar-winning performance) there to lend a hand.

Cold Mountain - 102-9484851-2495326
Anthony Minghella directs this tale based on the best-selling book about wounded Civil War soldier Inman (Jude Law) making the long, treacherous journey to his home in Cold Mountain, N.C. Along the way, he thinks of his love, Ada (Nicole Kidman), who has fought for sanity and her father's farm's survival while Inman has been gone, even with a brave young drifter named Ruby (Renee Zellweger, in an Oscar-winning performance) there to lend a hand.

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