Cold Mountain

Miramax films presents

Starring: Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Rene Zellweger

Written and Directed by: Anthony Minghella

Rating:****

Plot: Set during the Civil war one man (Jude Law) witnesses the carnage of war and wants to leave to return to the woman he loves (Nicole Kidman), which he left behind for the war. Only problem is that deserters are killed and he has to travel a long distance to get home which is Cold Mountain. Back at the mountain Kidman's character has to go through the torture of waiting for her man to come back to her. She is all alone until Zellweger's character shows up to help her with the farm. The story goes on with one's travel and two women trying to stand up on their own.

Acting: This is what you would call a major player cast. Not only do you have the three great leads but great character actors all the way through the film. Natalie Portman has a couple scenes in the movie it's crazy. Jude Law who a lot people know for having that sleek accent, well he got rid of that and got a little southern one (it does slip in out, but that is between you and me). He does a fine job as a quiet man who basically got fed up with killing other Americans for a cause in which he doesn't believe in, also he knew the war was ending soon anyway, why fight when you can go home to Nicole Kidman right? Well after getting shot in the throat Law's character heads out. Nicole Kidman really just played a simple quiet woman with problems. The thing is that the chemistry between Law and Kidman I thought was a little lacking at the beginning because they were both quiet people. It even set a weird tempo for the movie, that is until Zellweger came in. Now I love this woman to death she is so funny. I mean I love a lot of her work like Nurse Betty and Chicago and she basically gives the movie life support. Her basically over acting saves the movie from a slow path. When Nicole and Zellweger get on screen things just feel right and they work off of each other. I still couldn't really sit still with Jude Law as southern I don't know why but it really didn't exactly flow with me through out the entire film.

Directing/Writing: Now this movie has a lot of concepts in it, with love and war as the major factors. This movie should have been off the wall powerful and amazing but to me it felt dry and pushed through many scenes. The movie starts off with a major battle sequence which was pretty amazing, one big explosion and then just simple chaos. Then the movie drifts back and forth from present to past and as Jude Law's character travel's he runs into many differen't situations and sadly for me it was too many. It felt like this movie had several plots at once so when everything went down at the end it didn't feel very major at all. I don't understand what happened I loved all the concepts I was routing for the bad guys to die but when I left the theatre I had kind of a let down. Maybe because I saw this movie two weeks after it opened and I heard all the hype, but still. I blame this on two things mainly. First off there was some bad editing in this film, many scenes were cut too fast and other too short. Also the soundtrack was a little over the top at times. During the battle they have this music, I can't even remember it all that well, all I do remember is it distracted the hell out of me from watching the battle. Besides those two things though Cold Mountain is a treat. It shows parts of history many other film makers would not dare show. For example black troops fighting for the South and Union troops raping and pillaging southern homes. The cinematography in the film is also a treat. It's like a moving painting at times and it leaves you leaning back in your seat amazed.

Overall: It lacked in some areas for me but altogether it was a great story. I just don't think its worthy all the award nominations its getting.