Guys, let her talk you into seeing Cold Mountain

Rating: 8/10 (7 January 2004)

This is a movie for guys who like movies. Like "Cool Hand Luke", only with actual American girls included. A movie is such a huge collaboration between artists, far beyond my understanding; but Cold Mountain is a remarkable effort on the parts of some talented people. The production, the direction and the acting are greater than the sum of their parts. The camera work, the editing, the costumes and ESPECIALLY the sets get top marks. The script is good.
The Actors are great, save a small caveat. Some (not all) of the bad guys (and there are lots of bad guys in this movie) play the heavy a little too heavy. Not over the top, but just a little too mean AND evil at the same time, you know? Part of that probably comes from the way the characters and their actions were written in the original novel, and some of it comes from the age old problem of basically decent human beings playing (and directing) the role of sick, demented, evil human beings, and not really having anything in their own life experiences to base something like that on. I am not referring to Ray Winstones performance as Teague, I thought he was great. Very believable that you can dislike someone without being able to put your finger on why at first. A real trick to play that character and have the audience feel the distrust without the words and/or actions to substantiate that emotion.
There isn't a female actor in this movie that doesn't do an OUTSTANDING job. Nicole Kidman is stunning, she has never been more attractive than in Cold Mountain. Renee Zellweger is brilliant. Jude Law does a good job with a complex, difficult role.
I understand that this movie rates highly with females, under 18. That's surprising, for a macho guy movie like Cold Mountain.