Kidman's adequate, Law's darn good, Zellweger steals the show..and what a spectacularly dazzling supporting cast!

Rating: Null/10 (19 February 2004)

Spoilers
During the first half-hour of this 155-minute movie, you wonder if the story is going to be told through flashbacks. A clear pattern soon emerges, as you realise that the brief flashbacks are only to cover the initial encounter of Ada (Nicole Kidman), the new minister's refined daughter and Inman (Jude Law), an uncouth, shy wood worker, before he sets out to fight the Civil War for the South. The story then unfolds, for most of the rest of the movie, in two parallel lines, until close to the end when the two meet again. His line follows basically the highway movie pattern as he, a deserter and fugitive on his way home, runs into all kind of interesting people. Her story takes a different mode, as we see her struggling against poverty after her father's death, to keep her homestead from coveting goons now self-appointed as local law enforcer during the war. The struggle seems hopeless until Ruby (Renee Zellweger), a down-to-earth expert farm-hand, materialises to help transform her from someone who has never done anything that would give concrete results to a survivor adept in ploughing the fields just as well as in going out in the snow to shoot a fowl for food.
There appears to be two main themes in the movie: war and love. The horror of war is shown not that much through actual depiction of battles, as through the aftermath. As a matter of fact, the only battle scene in the entire movie occurs at the very beginning and is nowhere near the carnage we witness in Saving Private Ryan. The senselessness and cruelty, as well as the warping of human nature, however, is seen in every event that surround the separated couple.
The love story elevates itself above common melodrama through an almost saintly sublimation. They hardly know each other when they parted and it's only the urgency of the imminent war that drives them to one passionate kiss, in open view his comrades waiting for him. Throughout their ensuing vicissitude in separation, they cling to the thoughts of each other for strength to survive, particularly at moments of near-despair. To ask whether this is realistic and possible is missing the point. It's the unreserved sublimation of everything good that is so completely refreshing and lights up this movie.
Of the three main roles, Kidman turns in a fine though unspectacular performance. Law had well distinguished himself playing a variety of roles since he made a mark with Talented Mr. Ripley, and convincingly proofing that he is not just a pretty face by his portrayal of a blood chilling villain Maguire in Road to Perdition last year. The intensity, fire and innocence he ably combined in the character of Inman again shows his quality. Put Tom Cruise in this role and the movie will inevitably drop two notches. It is Zellweger who steals the show. Completely opposite to the glamorous role of Roxie Hart in Chicago, she now plays the physical, earthy Ruby, emotions all bottled up under a tough appearance, and a bit of a rough diamond with grass root wisdom.
Playing Veasey the fallen preacher is Philip Seymore Hoffman, whose performance in Owning Mahowny is more deserving of an Oscar best actor nomination than most of the actual nominees. This is also a mini-reunion of him and Law, from The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999).
Playing the deceptively harmless Junior is Giovanni Ribisi whom I saw twice within four days last week, in Lost In Translation and Heaven (2002). He also played the attention-grabbing character Kendall who died vomiting tons of blood in the suspense thriller Basic last year.
The young widow Sarah is played by lovely Natalie Portman, who brought immediate attention from the movie world as the little girl in Leon (1994), and went on to become Queen Padme Amidala (i.e. Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia's mother) in the Star Wars prequel trilogy.
Playing Ruby's father is Brendan Gleeson, well remembered from two recent spectacular roles, the formidable fighting `Monk' in Gang of New York and the amicable father in on of the 4 fugitives in 28 Days Later. Good neighbour Sally is played by Cathy Baker who in Edward Scissorhands (1990) played a minor but outstanding role of the horny neighbour. And then of course there is Donald Sutherland, playing Ada's father.
To sum up, Cold Mountain is one cut above the run-of-the-mill melodrama `epics'. Just watching the fantastic assembly of top-notch performers is well worth it. It is a bit two long but I guess it is very easy for filmmakers to succumb to the desire to `epicize' the film they are making.