An Amazing Cast!

Rating: 7/10 (23 December 2014)

I have never bothered to watch this movie as I'm not much of a Jude Law fan, and the thought of him an movie almost three hours long about the civil war did not appeal to this reviewer, even with the always reliable Brendon Gleason, Giovanni Ribbsi, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Natalie Portman and Donald Sutherland in the supporting cast. Not to mention Nicole Kidman and an Oscar winning turn by Renee Zellweger. But it was on TV tonight and in the absence of anything else to watch, I gave it a go, and boy am I glad I did.
Plot In A Paragraph: A wounded Confederate soldier named Inman (Law) who struggles on a perilous journey to get back home to Cold Mountain, to his sweetheart Ada (Kidman) the woman he left behind before going off to fight in the Civil War. Along the way, he meets a long line of interesting and colourful characters.
Every actor I have listed gives a good if not great performance. Portman stands out in her small role, whilst Seymour Hoffman reminds us what a talent we have lost.
Zellweger deservedly won the Oscar for her work here, Kidman may have been aggrieved that her work was over shadowed by her costar. As she too is superb, and was rightly nominated for a golden globe, but their was an academy award snub for some reason. For some reason I found the love scene with Law awkward to watch too. Weird. I didn't even find Jude Law as annoying as normal and he picked up an Oscar nomination.
There are several problems with it, but not enough to ruin the movie. Definitely worth checking out.