enjoyable, but the movie exists purely in parts (some spoilers)

Rating: Null/10 (19 January 2004)

This movie exists purely in parts. It doesn't quite work for me as a whole (it felt REALLY long, gratuitous sex, a slow opening, and a storyline that I cared less and less about as the movie went on), but I enjoyed it. It is good but not great. But this movie is absolutely heartbreaking in some scenes, which moved me completely to tears.
Basically, the movie is about a confederate soldier Inman (Jude Law) who is tired of fighting in a war he doesn't believe in. He decides to return home to his love, Ada Monroe (Nicole Kidman), but Inman is hunted by the North (`yankees') and the South (who are killing deserters of war) alike. Of Nicole Kidman and Jude Law, it can be said that they are well-cast in their roles as Ada and Inman. They do have some chemistry and there are some beautiful scenes between them, but their performances are nothing very special. (Read: not Oscar caliber.) This is not intended as a criticism because I enjoyed their work (I thought they captured anguish and love), but they didn't `wow' me.
I haven't read the book so I'm not entirely sure what I am saying is fair, but here are my criticisms: one, a really slow opening. It seemed to take an hour for Inman to finally start returning home to Ida. I thought the opening war scene was not very well done; too much shock value and too little emphasis on human emotions, brutality of war, etc. Two, gratuitous sex. There is just one bizarre sequence in the movie (is it in the book? I don't know) where Inman and some corrupt priest end up in a brothel house. It's very disturbing, gratuitous, and disgusting. I find it rather unnecessary. (The love scenes between Inman and Ada are rather graphic but I can understand it since they are deeply in love and `Cold Mountain' is an intense love story.) This is definitely not a movie to take little kids to.
Now that I've gotten all my criticism out of the way, let me say that I also have a lot of praise for this movie. I said the movie exists entirely in parts and there are several, particularly the ones where the Southern men are hunting down Confederate soldiers who have deserted the war. There is one scene about a husband and wife hiding their two young boys in their home. There is another about two men playing instruments to the Southern men, while knowing they will be shot shortly after. These scenes are very beautiful.
I think high praise goes to Renee Zellweger for her funny, touching, and strong portrayal of Ruby, the woman that comes to help Ada on the farm. Zellweger is uproariously funny and coarse; she steals every single scene she's in. And she is also responsible for one of the more moving moments in the film, when she finds her badly wounded father in the snow, bleeding from a gunshot wound. But the gem of this movie is, without a doubt, Natalie Portman as a widowed mother with a young child. Portman's two short scenes are my favorite in the movie. I don't want to spoil this one for you but Portman's touching and memorable performance (in only 10 minutes of film) will bring you to tears. It's a very powerful momentAlthough `Cold Mountain' has a lot of these moments, they don't quite work together as a whole. Still, it is an enjoyable effort and well worth the price of admission. 7/10