Stunning film!

Rating: 10/10 (27 June 2004)

This movie is set for release to DVD/VHS on Tuesday, June 29th. I work for a major chain video store and I'm able to view movies prior to release in order to make recommendations to customers. I missed this in the theaters but just finished watching it on DVD a second time!
I watched it TWICE in two days because I wanted to catch what I may have missed the first time. The scenery is gorgeous, the major battle scene is epic and despite what an earlier comment states, the love story is totally believable.
Yes, the two principals, Ada (Nicole Kidman) and Inman (Jude Law) only share a few words and glances but the spark is ignited before Inman marches off to war with the rest of the able-bodied young men of Cold Mountain. The thought of the possibilities of that love is what carries Ada and Inman through the most difficult times in their separate lives. It's a dream, a hope that some day things will be better if they are ever reunited and that together, there is a future even though the war and the resultant circumstances have changed them both forever.
Ada writes to Inman constantly although he actually only receives three of her letters but they are most precious to him and he reads and re-reads them every chance he gets to help keep him sane in insane times. He never writes her back although he composes his own letters in his head (heard in voice-overs) because he feels that the war has changed him too much and he is not the same as when he left her. He is injured and recuperating in a hospital when he is outside one day to enjoy the sun and he decides to go back to her (one of her letters pleads with him to stop whatever he is doing and just "Come back to me. Come back to me.") He simply starts walking even though soldiers are warned to stay on the hospital grounds.
Inman's adventures as he makes his way back to Ada and Cold Mountain are strongly reminiscent of Homer's "Odyssey", complete with a long time away from home due to a war hundreds of miles from home, suitors angling for Ada/Penelope's hand and land, Sirens and a person who takes care of Inman/Odysseus in a hut in the wilderness.
A separate disc is PACKED with Special Features that only added to my enjoyment of the DVD, including a segment/special called "The Words and Music of Cold Mountain". In this special, director Anthony Minghella is interviewed about the process of bring the movie to life, Sting reads part of a chapter of the book (yes, it was a BOOK before it was a movie) and Jack White (who plays "Georgia" in the film) performs some of the lonesome bluegrass music heard in the film.
The acting is superb; Renee Zellweger more than deserves her Supporting Actress Golden Globe and Oscar and it's too bad Nicole Kidman while nominated for a Golden Globe was overlooked at the Oscars. (Charlize Theron won both for "Monster".) Jude Law is excellent, too. I much preferred his performance over Sean Penn in "Mystic River" (Oscar) and Bill Murray in "Lost in Translation" (Golden Globe).
All told a great movie. I highly recommend it.