Excellent

Rating: 9/10 (28 December 2003)

This movie was leading the Oscar race before it even came out--with it's budget and pedigree, it was touted as the next big epic. No pressure...
It succeeded. It's a great movie, gritty, powerful, engaging, and wonderfully directed and acted. It's not quite amazing, but it's worthy of the attention it has received (namely by the Golden Globes).
As much as I love Nicole Kidman and how well she did, Renee Zellweger is the best part of the movie. Her often humorous, yet diverse, roll was perfectly done on her part. Jude Law was great in the roll that where all the "gritty" parts take place, as he is a soldier in the Civil War who escapes to travel home (treason). Nicole Kidman tries to have a southern accent, and it slips every now and then. I'm not sure if she was supposed to have a big one, as I think her character doesn't originally come from the south...at any rate, she's great, as usual. While it's not as "rangey" of a character as past performances (namely Moulin Rouge), she takes her role and owns it, sans a perfect accent.
I didn't care for all the historical, not harsh, gore, but that's just me. The two and half hours don't fly by, but I was never pondering when the movie was finally going to end. It was very well done, just short of incredible. 9/10