Release Date: December 25, 2003
Studio: Miramax Films
Director: Anthony Minghella
Screenwriter: Anthony Minghella
Starring: Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renee Zellweger, Jen Apgar, Eileen Atkins, Kathy Baker, Lucas Black, Emily Deschanel, James Gammon, Brendan Gleeson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Hunnam, Jena Malone, Taryn Manning, Mark Jeffrey Miller, Robin Mullins, Natalie Portman, Giovanni Ribisi, Ethan Suplee, Donald Sutherland, Melora Walters, Ray Winstone, Jack White
Genre: Drama, Romance
MPAA Rating: R (for violence and sexuality)
Official Website: ColdMountainmovie.com

Plot Summary: Fearing for the safety of his beloved Ada, the wounded Confederate soldier Inman makes his way across the war-ravaged South, back to her farm on Cold Mountain. He faces trials and tribulations as he encounters slaves and bounty hunters, soldiers and witches, unexpected friends and dangerous enemies at every turn. Ada's road is no easier as she relies on wits and newfound bravery to protect her father's farm from attack, with the help of an intrepid drifter named Ruby. As they come ever closer, Inman and Ada weave a story about the longing for home after being in the wilderness, the longing for peace after being at war, and the longing for love and union in the midst of chaos. Based on one of the most acclaimed novels in recent memory, "Cold Mountain" sets off on a true American odyssey through a time that saw some of the greatest ferocity -- and heroism -- the nation has ever known.

Reviewed by Peter Veugelaers © 2004
- Words escape me ... ecstasy

The Civil War as adulterated tragedy is contrasted by a love story in the historical epic Cold Mountain a film that portrays the dark heart and inner soul of the war in heart wrenching, disturbing mise en scene following mise en scene.

Jude Law as Inman and Nichole Kidman as Ada Monroe play lovers set among the ravages of what is depicted as a deeply affected and tormented time. He’s a Confederate deserter on a harrowing journey back to Ada who has lost her father, a amiable church minister (Donald Sutherland), and must fend for herself supported by the charity of the locals in a kind of Gone with the Wind Scarlet O’Hara scenario. That’s as far as the comparisons with Scarlet go. Enter in a flurry the hard working Ruby (Renee Zellweger), a tough breed who provides the labour for rebuilding her estate, while Ada longs for Inman to come back.

Cold Mountain is literate and strikingly made, with a brilliantly and compellingly staged opening battle sequence, superbly acted with strongly defined supporting and minor players, based on Charles Frazer’s novel of the same name. Written for the screen and skillfully directed by Anthony Minghella whose films The English Patient and The Talented Mr Ripley are also well made productions with literate and dramatic richness.

Ada and Inman’s relationship is mysterious. Inman admits he hardly knows Ada but they both experience a strong compulsion to be together so it is a curious sort of meeting of lover’s minds. The link we have to understand their relationship is by seeing this as a metaphor for hope: their love is the basis for the hope enabling them to survive. A reference in the film to Emily Bronte’s tragic romantic novel Wuthering Heights underscores the intense feelings behind their relationship highlighting the potential dreaded separation of Ada and Inman because of war’s logic. The romance works on the level of lyrical exchanges and gestures, and poetical images of sensual and soulful love.

Jude Law is excellent, a rugged survivalist unnoticeable in rough beard bearing a gun for defense who carries in him a gentle observance of his prevailing environment and the hurt and division the war has inflicted within himself and on others. Philip Seymour Hoffman is authentic, perhaps a little too fine for the role, conveying sympathetically the sometimes humorous indifference he has to the demands of legalistic Christianity as a weak man and frayed Church minister who conceived a bastard child to a Negro woman and who strays into temptations with prostitutes while journeying with Inman. Natalie Portman is touching as the young mother with baby without a present father whom Inman receives shelter from. She is threatened by Feds who show no mercy in a particularly unsettling scene, with Inman looking on. The imagery of Cold Mountain is sometimes strong and disturbing; the effect however underscores the human tragedy.