Apr 2004 - Issue 4
EO Home » Art & Culture » Reviews » Cold Mountain
by Sean Benjamin
Cold Mountain
Movie Title: Cold Mountain
Cast: Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renée Zellweger, Eileen
Atkins, Natalie Portman, Brendan Gleeson
Director: Anthony Minghella
Writing Credit: Charles Frazier (book), Anthony Minghella (screenplay)
Duration: 152 mins
Genre: drama, war, Romance
Rated: Contains strong sex and violence
Tagline: Find your way home.
Plot Outline: "Cold Mountain" tells the story of a wounded Confederate soldier named Inman (Jude Law) who struggles on a perilous journey to get back home to Cold Mountain, N.C. as well as to Ada (Nicole Kidman), the woman he left behind before going off to fight in the Civil War. Along the way, he meets a long line of interesting and colorful characters, while back at home, Ada is learning the ropes of managing her deceased father's farm with Ruby (Renee Zellweger who also won Oscar for best supporting actress), a scrappy drifter who assists and teaches Ada along the way.
Review: This film was directed by Anthony Minghella who makes films in the most beautiful locations. This film is suppose to be in the South but is actually filmed in the lush forests of Romania and even though some of the scenes don't look like the South the scenery is still rich and gives the film a unique and remote look. The battle scene that takes place in the first part of the film is as barbaric as it is impressive. When the explosion goes off we actually see soldiers getting their uniforms blown off. Its a scene that film historians will be discussing at great lengths and its probably the best reason to view this film. Both Jude Law and Nicole Kidman come off as strong but dull. What saves the film are the supporting performances that are all vividly shown and Renee Zellweger steals the entire film. It's not that her performance is believable but it is impossible to take your eyes off her when she's with Kidman who stands around looking like a deer caught in the headlights. Zellweger's Ruby is a cross between Annie Oakley and Pippi Longstocking and she chews the scenery with gusto.
The English Patient marked Minghella's preference for wartorn periods when the guns have stopped blazing and shattered lives must be rebuilt.
Similarly, Cold Mountain (adapted from Charles Frazier's award-winning novel) focuses on the chaos and barbarism of 1860s America, when the Civil War was winding down. Perhaps the main problem, though, lies in translating from print to screen: In Charles Frazier's novel, Inman comes alive through his thoughts, emotions and consciousness, but the inner life doesn't play well in cinema.
Except for the welcome flashbacks to Inman and Ada's chastely sexy encounters, we know him mainly through his adventures among the desperados he encounters, including Philip Seymour Hoffman as a guy poised to drown his pregnant black mistress, and Giovanni Ribisi as a bounty hunter luring his victims with booze and ’hos. It's always: What fresh hell awaits our hero? The resulting episodic structure spells tedium. Of course, the payoff arrives in the final big love scene between Inman and Ada.
A staggering amount of talent is involved in Cold Mountain, from production
designer
Dante Ferretti of Gangs of New York, to toppers Jude Law
and Nicole Kidman, to name actors doing cameos, to English Patient director Anthony
Minghella. And certainly, its big canvas, authentic settings and tragic romance make for an engrossing film.
But despite its surface allure and hi-lit creed, the hero remains opaque, the
structure is episodic, and the film never quite attains the epic sweep it aspires to.
The camera loves her starry blue gaze and luminous skin, and DP John Seale (also of The English Patient) makes her a mesmerizing package. The role of Ruby is a boon for Zellweger, since she doesn't have to look pretty, which was always a stretch. Amost unrecognizable, she soldiers through like some Civil War Annie Oakley, though I didn't for a minute believe in a character who seems mainly there for uplift. (Curiously, in the novel, Ruby was an escaped black slave, and you have to wonder why the filmmakers didn't run with that to score p.c. points.) Such notables as Ray Winstone, Natalie Portman and Eileen Atkins add actorly gravitas, and Gabriel Yared and Alison Krauss's score conveys a mood of doomy romantic grandeur. Ultimately, though, this art film blown up to studio scale delivers too little, too late. Minghella has shown once again that he knows how to tell stories on an epic scale and this is a well crafted film from start to finish.
Memorable Quotes and Trivia from Cold Mountain
Trivia: Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were both considering roles in
this movie, yet Cruise was unaware of Kidman's involvement. Cruise backed out but Kidman immediately signed up.
Cold Mountain was edited using Apple's "Final Cut Pro 3.0.2" software.
As of 2003, this was the most expensive film Miramax has financed on its own,
with a budget of about $85 million.
Nicole Kidman did all of her own piano playing.
Matt Damon, Josh Hartnett, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Eric Bana were all considered
for roles.
Memorable Quotes:
Inman: [To Ada] If you could see my inside, or whatever you want to name it; my spirit,
that's what I fear. I think I'm ruined. They kept trying to put me in the ground
but I wasn't ready. But if I had... if I had goodness, I lost it. If I had
anything tender in me, I shot it dead! How could I write to you after what I'd
done? What I'd seen?
Ada: What we have lost will never be returned to us. The land will not heal - too much blood. All we can do is learn from the past and make peace with it.
Inman: You are all that keeps me from
sliding into some dark place.
Ada: But how did I keep you? We barely knew each other. A few moments.
Inman: A thousand moments. They're like a bag of tiny diamonds glittering in a black heart.
Don't matter if they're real or things I made up. The shape of your neck, that's real. You were
always carrying a tray.
Ada: You wouldn't come inside.
Inman: I wouldn't come inside.
Ada: I had to carry a tray to come out and see you.
Inman: The way you felt when I pulled you to me. That kiss- which I kissed again everyday of my walking.
Ada: Everyday of my waiting...
Ada: I will not leave Cold Mountain. My last thread of courage is to wait... for you.
Express Your Thoughts!