Cold Mountain Is A Must-See
Stellar Cast Brings Civil War Era to Life

Before going to the cinema to see Cold Mountain, I decided to spend a few minutes online seeing what other reviewers were saying about the film. The reviews around the country were mostly positive. The reviewers seemed to be divided into two camps: Those who were unfamiliar with Charles Frazier’s best-selling novel and loved the movie, and those who had read the book and were discomforted by changes made in the film’s narrative.

Fortunately, I watched Cold Mountain without the benefit of reading the book. In many ways Cold Mountain is one of the best movies of the year and a nifty time capsule from the Appalachian Mountains during the Civil War. The characters are fully developed and intriguing, the story (two stories, really) is engaging, and the film moves along at a wondrous pace.

In Cold Mountain, Jude Law plays a quiet mountain man named Inman who falls desperately in love with the new girl in town, Ada Monroe (Nicole Kidman), after she and her reverend father (Donald Sutherland), move to the small Blue Ridge community from Charleston, South Carolina. The attraction is mutual but before Ada and Inman have a chance to really get to know one another, he is hauled off to battle at the beginning of the Civil War. Minghella does a superb job of showing how the young recruits from the mountains—men with no real vested interest in slavery—enthusiastically went to war out of a sense of pride and adventure. Most of them thought the entire ordeal would last a month or two.

Well, as we all well know, the War Between the States lasted four years and was the most horrific conflict our country has ever endured. Close to 400,000 Americans lost their lives in the war due to battle, infected injuries or disease. Early in the movie Minghella shows us one battle in such grim detail that it makes The Last Samurai look like a flower arranging party.

When Inman is badly injured in the neck, he is sent to a military hospital to recuperate. There he ruminates on the horrors of the war and his desire to get back to Cold Mountain and Ada. When he is strong enough, he deserts the Army and begins the long trek home, ever watchful for the Home Guard—roving groups of men instructed to capture or kill war deserters.

On his way, Inman meets a scurrilous religious man named Veasey (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a desperate young war widow named Sara (Natalie Portman), a filthy yet horny swamp family led by Junior (Giovanni Ribisi) and a mysterious goat woman with healing powers (Eileen Atkins).

Meanwhile, Ada’s father has died and left her with a house and a piano but not much in the way of survival skills. Ada’s neighbor Sally Swanger (the always terrific Kathy Baker) arranges for a young woman with some farm experience named Ruby (Renee Zellweger) to move in with Ada and help her out. The two young women form an unusual alliance but the scenes with Kidman and Zellweger are among the real highlights of the film. Ruby also helps Ada ward off the advances of a local Home Guard rogue named Teague who is determined to bed Ada and reclaim some of his grandfather’s land.

Minghella’s two previous blockbusters were The English Patient and The Talented Mr. Ripley and here he borrows storytelling tricks from both. Like The English Patient, Cold Mountain serves up multiple storylines and timelines but does so in a way that never distracts or confuses the viewer. As in The Talented Mr. Ripley, the director keeps the mood tense—even in scenes that pass by without bloody incident. Once again Minghella has shown himself to be a master of the period piece with every detail in perfect place. He also has a true knack for casting the smaller roles in a movie with actors who can bring something unique to the party.

Lovers of Cold Mountain the novel may quibble with some of the details of Cold Mountain the movie, but that does not keep it from being one of the best releases of the year.

Cold Mountain is rated R for violence, language and one of the steamier little sex scenes featuring big name actors in recent memory. It is currently playing at the Regal Cinema in Boone.