"Ruby Thewes-Day...Who can hang a name on you?"

Rating: 8/10 (24 July 2004)

in a film fairly loaded with terrific performances by a bevy of great character actors, Nicole and Jude as the leads almost get lost in the mix...but not Ms. Zellweger, who channels equal parts Auntie Eller and Calamity Jane and pretty much walks off with this movie (and they owed her an oscar for "chicago" anyway)...great job of directing and cinematography, and i take issue with anyone who complains about this flick's length since Walter Murch's editing keeps this puppy zipping along at a nice clip...the whole issue of the "home guard" is a dirty little tidbit of civil war history not mentioned in most texts and provides an interesting center for the conflict in the movie
while it may not quite be "Gone With The Wind", "Cold Mountain" is one of the better films to come down the pike in the last few years

the DVD extras include a terrific live concert of the music from the film interspersed with readings from the novel by most of the primary cast...and an impressively thoughtful interview with director Anthony Minghella about the project
and after years of ignoring the white stripes, i just became a jack white fan...any friend of t-bone burnett's is okay by me...