A Flawed but Interesting Civil-War Epic

Rating: Null/10 (1 March 2004)

(Moderate Spoilers)
I enjoyed this film, and am surprised at the amount of criticism and
anger lavished upon it. True, it is flawed, and for most of the
reasons that people have cited; Nicole Kidman looks out of
place--tall and beautiful, with great skin and teeth;. There is an
absence of black characters, when at this time, 1/3 of the
population of North Carolina was black; The film was made in
Romania, when it took place in the states.
I personally don't mind it that the characters are all too "pretty" to be
in this film. The way people look has much to do with the reason
they become stars. The absence of black characters may be a
more valid criticism, as there were many in the book. But this
does not take away from the story. And, although I feel for the
people who protested this movie because it meant losing
entertainment jobs for Americans, Romania served as a great
location to film this movie, as it had many spots untouched by
industry, could convincingly depict the four seasons of the year in
the short period that they had to film, and of course, it brought the
budget down.
"Cold Mountain" is a brutal and disturbing odyssey, much more so
than Anthony Minghella's other epic, "The English Patient." In it, we
witness graphic animal slaughter, cruelty toward Southern
deserters, (including a pair of sons murdered in front of their
mother while she is being tortured), and other violent encounters.
At times, it is as unpredictable as it is formulaic, as we are
surprised by characters who are suddenly killed off, or who
unexpectedly come back to us.
I can't understand why people find it unbelievable that Jude Law
and Nicole Kidman would have a connection from only a few
moments together. War rushes things, and relationships like this
have been common (I don't know as much about the Civil War, but
during WWII, many couples divorced after the man returned home,
as they hastily got married before they went overseas.) Even
without war, people have devoted themselves to others whom they
hardly knew, off of brief connections they felt with each-other. I
also do not agree with those who complain that Law and Kidman
spend the entire movie apart, when we are paying to see them
together. The two leads have quite a few scenes together.

As Law deserts and travels back to Nicole Kidman, he experiences many different encounters with interesting characters,
including a woman who slaughters her loyal goat in front of us,
people who routinely try to turn him over to the Confederacy, and a
very powerful sequence with a war-widow (I never knew Natalie
Portman could act!). These encounters are unfortunately uneven
when compared to each other, but they all work in their own right,
and always keep us interested. Nicole Kidman's life back at home
is equally important, as is her relationship with Oscar-winner,
Renee Zellweger (and I do pity that poor rooster!) A posse of men
stays in the town to hunt and kill deserters, providing many
suspenseful and frightening moments; these characters are
outrageously evil and murderous. My biggest complaint about the
film is how their story unsatisfyingly ends with a quick shootout.

Now while I found the film to be one of the more creative,
interesting, and entertaining movies of the year, I found it achieved
far less than the greatness that the filmmakers probably tried to
produce. The script needed more work. I haven't read the book,
and I suppose it was difficult to adapt. Something overall is
missing from "Cold Mountain." It has random glimpses of great
poignancy and emotional impact, but seems to give up tying them
together to better define the movie.
Grade: B+