Not Oscar caliber. Warning: Contains Spoiler.

Rating: Null/10 (3 January 2004)

Warning: Contains Spoiler.
I was disappointed with "Cold Mountain. I see one reviewer found it entertaining but it left no lasting impression on him. I would agree with that. It's well-made, mindless fluff.
The love story around which the plot is woven is utterly unbelievable. Our couple hardly says three words to each other before we are expected to believe that are hopelessly in love. I'm wondering what the young lady's father, the Reverend, would have to say about his daughter leaving the plantation to marry a carpenter, in the class conscious South of the 1860.

Leaving the love theme aside, it is also difficult to believe that what is presented as fact in this film is historically accurate. Many deserters were shot, I'm sure. But I doubt bands of official "vigilantes" were allowed to run about killing anyone they pleased, leaving the bodies where they lay and having to account to no one. And if it were the case, I would think it more likely to happen out on the high road, not once one is home in a close nit mountain community, where they have always taken care of their own.
The mindlessness goes on and on. In one horrific scene, three Union soldiers raid a farmhouse; there they demand food from a single woman they find there. They are either lost or more likely deserters themselves. One of the soldiers explains that they are desperate, that they have not eaten in three days. After they locate the chickens and a hog, they seem to forget about eating all together and proceed to rape the woman. Can anyone believe that it would not be food first and women after?

This film go on and on like this from one improbability to another until the mind just goes numb. Therefore, even though Cold Mountain is certainly entertaining, well acted, and beautifully filmed, I can't give it better than a B+. So don't fall for the hype. There are several better movies made in 2003. This is not Oscar caliber stuff and it's certainly not "Gone With The Wind."

Tim Green