Mountain Cold

Rating: 4/10 (11 January 2005)

The not so engaging story of two people who barely know each other falling in love and staying in love throughout the Civil War. The hero, Jude Law, spends the majority of the film trying to get back to his beloved, Nicole Kidman, who has to run the farm by herself after her pastor dad (Donald Sutherland) dies. The hapless Kidman is helped by a rugged Zellwegger and struggles to carry on in spite of the hardships and bullying of a greedy man (Ray Winstone, slumming it badly) who wants her lands and just happens to be the sheriff. Well, him and his thugs are later destroyed by Jude Law, but does Law live happily ever after? After the first ten minutes you probably won't care. Law gives his best but the film is just too bloated and sluggish to be engaging (and Law has noticeable trouble holding a Southern accent). Nicole Kidman is miscast as the hapless love interest; she's just too much of an authority figure to be convincing as a soft, delicate, helpless woman (plus she doesn't look roughed up enough when the hard times get underway). Zellwegger's heartiness borderlines being too comical for the film's own good.
Scenery's beautiful though. That's New Zealand for you. Bad music at the end, I'm afraid.