Yar, you be here: Cold Mountain > Customer Reviews

Cold Mountain Customer Reviews (16 - 18 of 87 Reviews)

Cold Mountain - 002-5800950-9292055
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.

Beautiful poetry in motion. Very moving.
Well, I liked this movie.
Many have written that it's about Confederates, and to hell with them and their war-suffering - they were cruel and evil, etc. I never understand this viewpoint. Confederates and others have been wrong and still had deeply moving, interesting lives. In fact their fallability and loss at being decieved and dedicated to the wrong side of historic events, makes them more sympathetic to me.

If you want to root for the goodguys there are a thousand films out there. The suffering of a losing army in any war is vastly greater than that of the victors, and those broken soldiers have often have worthy stories. It is in heartbreak and defeat that one's deepest character is fully revealed. After all, they didn't necessarily choose their side of the war. Their town was on in a certain area and the leaders of the region declared war. They had no options at all.

I thought the plot was thin on dialogue and was sometimes a bit flat, but Jude Law and Nicole are like walking poetry. Seeing the light in their eyes - words were unnecessary. The plot pulled them together in a sort of relentless call-to-romance which I thought was beautiful and haunting, where all outside events fell away around the hope of seeing their missing suitor. They were instant soulmates, a modern Romeo and Juliet.

Very few movies can convey deep emotion, either romantic love or real treagedy to the audience - it's an innaccessible emotional place which few directors can reach. Minghella has attempted it here and it worked on me. Both thumbs way up.

One curious note: In the book, Renee Zellweger's character was African American. Renee did a wonderful job, but wouldn't that have worked better here?

If you liked this, see 'Ride with the Devil' Ang Lee's excellent film on the Civil War starring Tobey Mcguire.

When Inman Comes Marching Home
`Cold Mountain', a film based on Charles Frazier's outstanding novel of the same name, tells a powerful tale set in the end game of the Civil War, as the Rebel armies fought on though all hope for a Southern victory was gone. A wounded rebel soldier, Inman (Jude Law), deserts the hopeless fighting to make a desperate, dangerous quest to his mountain home in North Carolina and to Ada (Nicole Kidman), the girl that he left behind. The story cuts back and forth between Inman's perilous trek walking home and Ada's struggle to maintain her farm in a world fallen apart around her. Interspersed in these two strands are flashbacks to Inman and Ada's pre-war courting. It's a sad story of the cost of war, not on the battlefields, but on the lives and fortunes of those left behind on the home front.

`Cold Mountain' is beautifully and movingly filmed. It opens with a dramatic portrayal of the Battle of the Crater that is stunningly effective in showing the brutal violence and horror of the hopeless war Inman leaves to seek his far away home. Just as effectively captured is the natural beauty of the mountain home he left behind, as well as the changing and challenging landscapes through which he moves on his journey home.

Jude Law and Nicole Kidman are adequate leads, though neither really distinguishes themselves in their roles, and their near perfect physical attractiveness seems inauthentic for a film set in 1860s Appalachia. The best performances in the movie belong to the excellent supporting cast - in particular Renee Zellweger's brilliant portrayal of Ruby Thewes, the tough, coarse, outspoken young woman who taught the frail Ada how to survive. Philip Seymour Hoffman also deserves mention for his brief but evocative performance as a decadent rogue preacher Inman meets on his journey home, as does Natalie Portman for her role as a desperate, war widow mother whom Inman encounters. Donald Sutherland, Kathy Baker, James Gammon, Brendan Gleeson, and Ray Winstone round out a fine cast of character actors.

`Cold Mountain' is not a perfect film, but when all of its virtues are considered together - its stunning visual storytelling, outstanding supporting cast, and its use of amazing old-time Appalachian music throughout, it emerges as one of the best Civil War movies yet made. It is an honest, tragic tale of war's cost, told well. It has my recommendation.

Theo Logos

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