Certainly watchable but many things in the movie restrain it from being a masterpiece.

Rating: 7/10 (27 January 2006)

"Cold Mountain" is a beautifully made movie with a great celebrity cast, than why don't I regard this movie as a masterpiece? There are several reasons for this.
The heart of the movie is the love-story between the Nicole Kidman and Jude Law character. Everything that happens in the movie evolves around the fact that both characters are deeply in love and are always on each others mind. But problem is that the love-story is not believable at all. The love-story feels unlikely because there is no chemistry between Jude Law and Nicole Kidman at all. No click, no spark no nothing at all. Maybe this is also because the love-story in the movie is very underdeveloped. The love-story is only developed in the beginning of the movie when they are still together but honestly, that period of time is too short to build an entire movie around. It makes all of the other things that occur in the movie also extra unlikely.
Which brings me to another problem I had with the movie; it was highly unlikely at times. The events and characters in the movie seem to pop out of nowhere. Obviously the story is supposed to be an adventurous one but yet the movie is made too serious so all the sense of adventure and fun is not present enough. All of the events in the movie feel highly unlikely and most of them lack a point or purpose.
The big celebrity cast is great to watch but is also the downfall of the movie. Most actors suddenly pop up so every time a celebrity appears on screen you're thinking; 'Hey look there is Natalie Portman and hey there is Philip Seymour Hoffman, boy this movie sure has some celebrities in it'. Point is, it works distracting from the movie and it's story. It almost feels at times like they were bragging up by showing the many famous actors they got to appear in this movie. Yes, sure the actors are just absolutely great, especially Philip Seymour Hoffman, Renée Zellweger (yes, she deserved her Oscar even though I din't always liked her character) and Natalie Portman. Still I have the feeling that the movie would had been a better one with a more 'unknown' cast in it.
Only reason why I still rate this movie as 'highly' as I do is due to the obvious profession it was made with. Director Anthony Minghella shows some moments of greatness and the settings and sceneries are quite beautiful. It also is no punishment to watch the big celebrity cast in the movie, even though still the movie is a 'celebrity-overkill' at times. The movie is loved by many, so I guess this is just simply not my cup of tea.
7/10
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