Unforgettable battle scene, forgettable film

Rating: Null/10 (28 December 2003)

I would recommend seeing "Cold Mountain" for one reason, and one reason only. The battle sequence at the very beginning of the film is truly a military masterpiece, a scene that graphically conveys the mud, blood and guts of war, masterfully employing the various techniques of cinematography, direction and makeup toward this end. In my view, this is one of the best battle scenes that I have ever seen committed to film.
That being said, "Cold Mountain" fails utterly in other respects -- first and foremost, as the romance it purports and is advertised to be. Jude Law is credible enough as Inman, the Confederate soldier who braves Union armies and the Home Guard of his own state of North Carolina to return to the woman of his dreams. But why on earth would any man spend three years dreaming of Ada Monroe, or at least Nicole Kidman's incarnation of the southern belle? Nicole Kidman's character is truly an ice maiden -- a pale, cold, rather remote and distant blonde. Believe it or not, Nicole Kidman's character is dwarfed and overshadowed by the rest of the cast. Both major and minor characters alike are more colourful by far.
Renee Zellweger may very well garner a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her role as Ruby, a poor backwoods girl (somewhere between Doris Day's Calamity Jane and Donna Douglass's Elly Mae Clampett) who teaches Ada the survival skills her preacher father (Donald Sutherland) has failed to instill.
"Cold Mountain" fails as a romance, but works as a meditation on man's inhumanity to man. One only wishes that the cruelty were not so relentless.