Hope in a post- LOTR world [slight spoilers]

Rating: Null/10 (3 January 2004)

Its ridiculously well acted. I totally bought into the wonderfully chaste yet aching yearning of Ada and Inman, [as in, Nicole and Jude] which is what i think the film needed to hinge on. There's this lovely part in the film where the two are standing outside her home, having exchanged not more then half a dozen words in total - its obvious that they are desperately in love but both are inexperienced and stilted by social conventions and the knowledge that they are communing on borrowed time - he's signed up for the Civil war you see. She wonders as to his feelings for her [though never so bluntly] and he is incapable of expressing himself - yet the depth of feeling is conveyed when he breaks his silence to explain that, even though you can't describe the colour of the night's sky, and although theres no term for 'that feeling when all night you've laid awake thinking so hard that your ribs are bruised', these things are very real and present.

As is death, and destruction. The horror of war is everywhere, right from the non-preachy slow-motion-free beginning, where the Yankees [northerners to you and me] blow up Inman and his fellow Southerners. He decides that being killed for a pointless cause he doesnt believe in is much less preferable then risking torture, starvation and death by naked adulterous wives - all in the hope of finding Ada once again. To me, tactical details about the civil war didnt matter, neither that characters come and go in his Odyssey-like journey, because its about the way people get through pain, how they deal with dilemmas [such as the couple who are tortured by the Home Guard to reveal their deserter sons] and how people change because of war.

Ada doesnt just sit about writing letters, either. She fights her own personal war against the elements, gold-digging guards, and a psychotic cockeral, having been raised a genteele Southern belle with no practical skills. thankfully Renee Zellwegger turns up with a mean ol' glint in her eye, a pair of capable hands, a very pugnacious pout and beheads said chicken and restores the farm.
The acting is amazing, like i said, i believed that Ada and Inman could wait and save themselves for years despite barely knowing each other, or even knowing if the other was alive, and that he would travel 1000 miles for her, reliving their one and only kiss every day. The whole cast is great too, no one is a stereotype, there aren't any awful pitchfork-wielding yokels with straw hanging out their mouths. Some people may think its on the road to soppiness but i have a superb cheese detector and i think this film strikes the right chord, and anyway, Renee cuts right through it all with her snappy comments.
One actor who was particularly moving was an unfortunate Natalie Portman [she of the awful Star Wars seduction] as a young widow trapped alone with a sick baby who shelters Inman for a night. She puts him in the corn store, then thinks better of it and puts him in her bed as you would with Jude Law. Yet she doesnt ask for anything other then him to hold her, as she cries and recalls a time before her husband left to fight and never returned. in the morning, Union soldiers arrive [including Cillian Murphy - he of 28 Days Later] to hunt out the Southerner and generally bully the girl. Her turn as a girl so selflessly in love with her baby that she would allow the captain to rape her in the hope that he will leave the child alone is truly touching. And Jack White from The Stripes is in it! and hes good! Law is getting better and better, he is obviously trying to be recognised as more of a character actor then pretty boy [as befits a man whose face is partially obscured by a period beard throughout half the film] and it continues the good work since his stunningly slimy 'photographer' in Road To Perdition. Kidman is, as always, perfect, playing a woman a good ten years younger.
I was really annoyed 'cause i'd read what happens in the end in an article about the director, Anthony Minghella, in The Times, of all places. it shows how good it is when I could still enjoy each moment. You get a real sense of the harshness of life, of the need for security and hope in a world falling apart - for characters like Portman's and to a lesser extent, Kidman's, the war has been paid for dearly and safety is a key theme. Minghella directed [and adapted for screenplay] Talented Mr Ripley, and The English Patient so there you go, hes top class. Proof that Dorset has something to give the world besides Cerne Abbas Giant biscuits, education for pre-Coldplay singers and erm, Martin Clunes. Seriously good, wanna see it again!