Flawed but good war epic

Rating: Null/10 (12 October 2004)

SPOILERS POSSIBLE
First let me get my gripes out of the way: Phillip Seymour Hoffman, whose work I usually admire, was purely IRRITATING in this movie!!! I don't know why his comic relief didn't work for me, but it just didn't. Talking about having to take a dump, rambling on about his curly hair, and above all, his appetite for sex, which shouldn't be surprising, being that he's a "man of God". Still, it was just bad, really bad!!!
Gripe #2, the ending was just a wee bit melodramatic, but I can forgive that.
The music is absolutely beautiful, the instrumental theme and the songs by Allison Krauss. The score should have won an Oscar.
The cast, aside from Hoffman, was terrific. Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renee Zellweger (a great performance as a toughened farm girl), Brendan Gleeson, Jack White, Kathy Baker, Giovanni Ribisi, Natalie Portman, Ethan Suplee, and Eileen Atkins (as a somewhat scary old woman living in the woods), all were wonderful.
In spite of what a lot of reviewers said, I found the pace somewhat fast and easy to follow. The story kept me engaged. It only took a big blundering trip and fell down when Hoffman appeared on the scene. Thank God his irritating character was killed off relatively fast. While Inman is trying to find his way home to Cold Mountain, Ada is learning how to run her farm, and learning to be tougher than the Southern Belle she was in the beginning.
Lots of action, romance and wonderful characters. I give this movie an A- or a B+.