Love triumphs over any suffering

Rating: 8/10 (26 January 2006)

Although I haven't read the book, it became obvious that the film's screenplay has origins from literature. Many novels, poems written on diverse languages have at their basis the topic of fighting and suffering for love. This is the essence of the film. The rest is detail. But these detail differentiate it from other films. The age, the natural surroundings, the supporting actors are also chosen carefully, distinguishing the film from the majority.
It is the age of the Civil War. A wounded soldier begins his journey back home to Cold Mountain, North Carolina to reunite with his love. Their love is pure, idyllic. The whole journey is also fabulous, he gets in amazing situations encountering evil and good. Meanwhile his love meets her own problems at home in the lean and dire days of the war.
The acting is very good. I won't comment it in detail, I am sure others did, anyway the names and nominations speak for themselves. The scenes filmed in Romania near Brasov are beautiful, although I'm sure there are differences between the Carpatians and the Appalacian Mountains. The costumes and make-ups are good, the filmmakers even manage to make the audience forget about the fact that Kidman and Zellweger are film stars.
This is not the usual romance story. Violent sometimes naturalistic scenes are mixed with romantic scenes. There are people, loving romantic movies, who consider it too violent at some places, others consider it too romantic. I consider it a film worth to watch, a film above the majority.