Cold Mountain
Tags: depressing, murder, dramatic, flashback, romantic, tragedy, revenge, historical

Plot synopsis:
When North Carolina secedes from the Union on May 20, 1861, the young men of a rural North Carolina town on Cold Mountain hurry to enlist in the Confederate States Army. Among them is W.P. Inman, a carpenter who has fallen in love with Ada, a preacher's daughter, and their whirlwind courtship is interrupted by the war.
Three years later, Inman finds himself at the Battle of the Crater. Union soldiers tunnel beneath Confederate fortifications and detonate kegs of gunpowder prior to an ill-fated attack against the rebels. Oakley, Inman's acquaintance from Cold Mountain, is seriously wounded. Inman gets him to a field hospital, where Oakley dies with Inman beside him and friend Stobrod Thewes playing him a song on his fiddle.
Inman and his Cherokee friend Swimmer are sent, with other Cold Mountain men, to flush out surviving Union troops behind their lines. During the raid, friendly fire kills Swimmer and seriously wounds Inman. As Inman lies in the hospital near death, he reads a letter from Ada in which she pleads with him to stop fighting, stop marching, and come back to her. Inman recovers, and–with the war drawing ever closer to an inevitable Confederate defeat–deserts to return to Cold Mountain.
Inman meets the corrupt preacher Reverend Veasey, who is about to drown his pregnant slave lover. Inman stops Veasey, and leaves him tied up to face the town's justice. Exiled from his parish, Veasey later joins Inman on his journey.
They help a young man named Junior butcher his cow, and join him and his family for dinner. When Junior goes out to his trapline, the women in his family seduce Veasey, and Junior's wife, Lila, tries to seduce Inman. It is a ploy, as Junior soon returns with the Confederate Home Guard, and both Inman and Veasey are led away with other deserters. During a skirmish with Union cavalry, Veasey is killed and Inman left for dead. An elderly hermit living in the woods finds him and nurses him back to health.
Inman meets a grieving young widow named Sara, who is raising her infant child Ethan alone; he stays the night at her cabin. The next morning, a party of Union foragers arrive demanding food. Sara orders Inman away for his protection, but he hides close by. The leader, Nym, and his lieutenant harass Sara, steal her livestock, and leave Ethan in the cold, though the third soldier attempts to keep the baby warm. Nym tries to rape Sara but both he and the lieutenant are killed by Inman. Inman forces the kind forager to surrender and lets him go, but an enraged Sara fatally shoots him.
Interspersed with Inman's adventures, we see Ada's wartime experiences. A proper city girl, she and her father only recently moved to a Cold Mountain farm named Black Cove. She met Inman on her first day at Cold Mountain and had a brief, chaste romance with him the night before he left for the army. Shortly after Inman leaves, her father dies, leaving her with no money, no farming skills and little prospect for help with most able-bodied men off at war.
Ada survives on the kindness of her neighbors, one of whom eventually sends Stobrod's daughter, Ruby Thewes, to help. Ruby is a young woman who has lived a hard-scrabble life and is adept at the tasks needed to run the farm. Ruby moves in and together they bring the farm to working order. Meanwhile, Ada writes constant letters to Inman in hopes of meeting him again and renewing their romance.
The two women become close friends and confidantes. They are also friends with the Swangers, who live down the road from Black Cove. It is at the Swangers' well that Ada has a vision of Inman coming back to her in the snow, surrounded by crows.
Ada and Ruby as well as other members of their community, have several tense encounters with men of the Home Guard. Their branch is led by Captain Teague, whose grandfather once owned much of Cold Mountain. He and his deputies hunt deserters, partially with the goal of Teague's seizing their land. Teague also lusts after Ada. Meant to protect the South and its citizen population from the North, the Home Guard have become violent vigilantes, killing deserters and terrorizing citizens for helping the deserters. Teague and his men torture Mrs. Swanger to coax her deserter sons out of hiding, killing both boys and Mr. Swanger when they appear.
Stobrod Thewes, having deserted, arrives back at Cold Mountain with traveling companions Pangle, an intellectually challenged banjo player, and Georgia, a mandolin player to whom Ruby is attracted.
While camping, Stobrod, Pangle, and Georgia are cornered by Teague and the Guard. Pangle unintentionally reveals the musicians are deserters, and the Home Guard shoot Pangle and Stobrod while Georgia watches from hiding. He escapes to Black Cove and returns with Ruby and Ada, who find Pangle dead and Stobrod badly wounded. Ada helps Ruby remove a bullet from Strobrod's back, and they decide to take shelter in some cabins in the woods to avoid Teague and his men.
At this point the two story lines come together. Inman, half-dead from starvation, finally reaches Cold Mountain and is almost killed by Ada before she recognizes him. They later consummate their love and spend the night together.
The Home Guard soon find them, having captured and tortured Georgia for information. In the ensuing gunfight Inman ambushes and kills Teague and most of his band, but Teague's violent young lieutenant Bosie escapes up the mountain. Cornering him near the top, Inman urges him to surrender peacefully, but Bosie draws, forcing Inman to fire; both men are mortally wounded. Ada reaches Inman, finding him just as she saw him in her vision at the well: coming back to her in the snow surrounded by crows. He dies in her arms.
A few years later, Ada and Ruby are celebrating Easter. Ruby has married Georgia, and the two have a young daughter and an infant child. It is revealed that Ada's night with Inman has produced a child, Grace Inman.

Review: While it accurately depicts the brutality and inhumanity of that war, it also does something that many films related to this period do not handle effectively - Cold Mountain studies the southern context from the inside out, and portrays changes among the non-slave owning common people wrought by the war.
It is a romance, a war story, an action-adventure and historical fiction, all nicely woven into one.The story centers on Inman (Jude Law) and Ada Monroe (Nicole Kidman), who are smitten with each other for very simple reasons.
Nobody he meets comes to his rescue as he begins the thousand mile walk back to Cold Mountain and Ada, and most of those he meets die.The bulk of the film takes place during Inman's long walk, following both of the protagonists as they live, learn, grow and change.
The Civil War-era "Cold Mountain," starring Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Renée Zellweger is such a film.Then again, calling Cold Mountain" a war movie is not entirely accurate.
The story centers around disgruntled Confederate soldier Inman, played by Jude Law, who becomes disgusted with the gruesome war and homesick for the beautiful hamlet of Cold Mountain, North Carolina and the equally beautiful southern belle he left behind, Ada Monroe, played by Nicole Kidman.
Indeed, the earlier segments of the film are relatively unimpressive and even somewhat contrived."Cold Mountain" soon takes a drastic turn, though, as the intrepid hero Inman turns out to be a deserter (incidentally saving the audience from the potentially confusing scenario of wanting to root for the Confederates) and begins a long odyssey homeward.
Though the weapons and tactics of war itself have changed much in the past century, it's hellish effect on the land is timelessly relevant.Director Anthony Minghella manages to maintain this gloomy mood for most of the film, but the atmosphere is unfortunately denigrated by a rather tepid climax that does little justice to the wonderfully formed characters.
The love story between Inman and Ada is awkwardly tacked onto the beginning and end of the film, though the inherently distant, abstracted and even absurd nature of their relationship in a way fits the dismal nature of the rest of the plot.Make no mistake, "Cold Mountain" has neither the traits of a feel-good romance nor an inspiring war drama.
So amazingly and magnificently captured at different camera angles, from scene to scene against the cold, mountainous countryside!This film isn't throwing off longwinded dialogue and lengthy physical encounters between Jude Law's Inman and Nicole Kidman's Ada to reveal the meeting of two souls searching for a meaningful existence.
The acting mainly carried this film, with superb performances from Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Renee Zellweger, as well as the supporting cast.
A Beautiful Romance in Times of War. In Cold Mountain, North Colorado, near to the period of the American Civil War, the Reverend Monroe (Donald Sutherland) arrives in the small town with his daughter, the shy Ada Monroe (Nicole Kidman), due to health reasons.
With the beginning of the war, Inman becomes a soldier, and his great support to stay alive is the wish to see Ada in Cold Mountain again.
Having names such as Philip Seymour Hoffman, Natalie Portman and Giovanni Ribisi in the supporting cast, a magnificent direction of Anthony Minghella and seven indications to the Oscar, this movie does not disappoint.
But all the action surrounding the romance is great, with some good-natured humorous touches, wonderful supporting characters and the perfect picture overall of life during the American Civil War. The cast is superb, with Zellweger in particular undergoing a superb transformation from her typical roles.
It stars Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renée Zellweger, Eileen Atkins, Kathy Baker, Brendan Gleeson, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Ray Winstone and Natalie Portman.Music is scored by Gabriel Yared and cinematography by John Seale.
This is Minghella's world and the American Civil War movie gets a double shot in the arm as Cold Mountain not only deals in the home front, but also in the perilous life of the soldier.
(And this sometimes meandering work was originally FIVE hours long!) The amount of footage left on the cutting room floor makes for some uncomfortable continuity (such as when a character is tortured and watches 3 family members slaughtered and is next seen smilingly dancing a Christmas jig!) Nevertheless, the romance and beauty of the film still delivers and there is no doubt that Kidman is a MOVIE STAR.
Unfortunately, it tends to take too long to tell a tale that lacks the power of holding interest once it gets past the midway point.Nevertheless, anyone interested in the Civil War period will find this a meticulous work as far as costumes, settings and use of folk music is concerned.
The movie deals about American Civil War (1861-1865) , the starring (Jude Law , though Matt Damon, Josh Hartnett, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Eric Bana were all considered for this role) meets Ada (Nicole Kidman , though Julia Roberts and Cate Blanchett were both considered) in ¨Cold mountain¨ and they fall in love .
The motion picture is pretty strong with crude scenes : the bloody battles ,rampages , rape , murders...it has many violent shots , for that reason the film is rated ¨R¨ as the violence is extreme with cruel killings , besides some sex scenes.In United States attained a moderated success in spite of nomination to various Oscars , though only obtained one award to support cast for Renee Zellweger .
These are the characters Law meets as he does his Johnny Appleseed trek from the front lines, where he has deserted, to the hopefully loving embrace of Kidman back in Cold Mountain.
After Ms. Kidman and Mr. Law meet cute with zero screen chemistry in a small North Carolina town and steal a kiss before its off to war for Jude and his photo souvenir of the girl he left behind, it's a two hour test to the kidneys as to whether he will survive a myriad of near-death experiences to reunite with his soulmate.
I can't help but wonder if they didn't make his character less talkative on purpose so we would't have to hear that tortured accent so much.As far as the movie, it took a long time for it to get interesting (about 1 or 1.5 hours), and then fell flat in it's ending.
I could forgive Phillip Seymore Hoffman's British southern fusion accent (Not nearly as bad as Nichole Kidman's or Jude Law's sad attempts at southerners...sad and inconsistent), or Rene Zellweger's comic book interpretation of her comic relief character (she was occasionally amusing after all).
Cold Mountain alternates between the stories of Nicole Kidman, waiting at home for her sweetheart to return from the civil war, and Jude Law, her sweetheart trying to find his way back to her.
Superb cinematography, great performances from Jude Law, albeit iffy southern accents right the way through, and despite the fact that I did not like Kidman at all in this, I enjoyed it, but its flawed, to my mind, by the lack of a chemistry, and Nicole Kidman's unwelcoming, mannered persona..
I couldn't wait for him to get back to Ms. Kidman so that this darn movie could end.The civil war battle scenes can't match Atlanta in "Gone With the Wind."A real stinker..
Neither Nicole Kidman nor Jude Law make convincing Southerners and, though she won an Academy Award for her role, Renee Zellweger is less believable than either of them.
Loosely based on Homer's 'Odyssey', 'Cold Mountain' tells the story of the final days of the American Civil War, and one man's struggle to get home.
Perforce it can only be a hurried "scenes from" the engrossing novel which puts Penelope and Odysseus amidst the Civil War where author Charles Frazier added irony to Homer as Ada/Penelope first has to (metaphorically) learn to weave as she keeps suitors and other dangers at bay and Inman/Odysseus is not a hero but barely survives as a deserter to face parallel trials on the way home.
Even under dirt and mussed hair, Nicole Kidman and Jude Law are two of the mostly stunningly beautiful human beings on the planet --and it's a pretty safe bet that they'll be entered in MTV's "Best Film Kiss of 2003"--yet they almost don't stand out amidst an attractive cameo cast with the likes of Natalie Portman, Cillian Murphy, Giovanni Ribisi, Charlie Hunnam, with Ray Winstone as the villain, etc.
we've already been told she could have any man she wanted); Law, who overdoes his performance with too much emphasis on his haunted stare, is a really odd choice to play a Southern American left alienated by wartime; Oscar winner Renée Zellweger comes into the picture at just the right time and, though her accent doesn't completely convince, she gives the proceedings a little spirit.
Another tiresome bore from Anthony Minghella, who seems to thrive on these big bloated super-productions that take over two and a half hours to do what any reasonable filmmaker would do in about ninety minutes.The story centers on Inman (a somnambulent Jude Law), who goes off to the Civil War having just barely started a sort-of romance with Nicole Kidman, a Preacher's Daughter who has recently arrived in the prettily photographed backwater town.
If you like Civil War movies, there are better ones out there, and there are plenty of better love stories out there that actually have happy endings, unlike this awful film.
"Cold Mountain" (2003) tries to be The Odyssey told during the Civil War - the story of a man on his way home to his eternal love and all the obstacles and tribulations he faces.
I did not read the book, so I can not comment on what parts were left out but the love story between Inman (Law) and Ada (Kidman) did not touch me very much.
I've seen four Oscar nominated performances from last year and at least two were much better than Renee Zellweger.There is a very frank love scene between Law and Kidman in the end.
I wanted a Civil War movie and got a messed melodrama with very slow and poorly acting Nicole Kidman, very funny (the best there) Renee Z., and then, Jude Law. He was not good for his part.
There have been few film versions of a celebrated novel that have done better justice to their source material than Anthony Minghella's movie of Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain.
His wide-open shots show off the landscape at its finest (Romania often standing in for North Carolina, but this doesn't matter; it looks wonderful), showing off the changeless beauty which surrounds the misery and bloodshed.The cast of Cold Mountain gives us some fine examples of non-American actors playing Americans, not that you would know for how well Nicole Kidman and Jude Law master the dialect.
In this story, "Inman" (Jude Law) deserts the Confederate Army during the Civil War. His reason: his girlfriend misses him and wants him home.
The acting is of a high quality and will most likely come away with a trinity of oscar noms for Law, Kidman and Zellweger, even though Portman's few scenes may be the most powerful in the film.
We see how awkward fleeting moments between the quiet, reserved Inman (Jude Law) and the rich preacher's daughter Ada (Nicole Kidman) turn into something quite profound and layered when the former is called to fight against the yankees in the Civil War. Through narrative letters, Ada communicates her longing and love for the soldier who finally decides to desert and head home to Cold Mountain to see her, not really knowing her but being swept away in the idea of his lover.
Adapted from the Charles Frazier novel, and a poignant study of love prevailing over distance, time, and war, Cold Mountain (2003 Miramax Films) tears a romance asunder by means of the Civil War.Reverend Monroe (Donald Sutherland) and his beautiful and loving daughter Ada (Nicole Kidman) move from Charlotte to the community of Cold Mountain, North Carolina just before the War Between the States.
It's a love story cast in the classic 'epic love story' mold.The acting cast are impeccable and impressive: Kidman, Law, Zellwegger, Hoffman, Gammon, Gleeson, Ribisi, Sutherland, Winstone, Baker, Portman - and an assortment of mostly English to round things out.That gives reason to pause: this is a movie about the US civil war with a mostly non-US cast and filmed in Romania.
Based on the best-selling novel by Charles Frazier, Anthony Minghella's `Cold Mountain' is, like his earlier snooze-fest, `The English Patient,' one of those highbrow historical romances that only a Motion Picture Academy member could love.
Jude Law and Nicole Kidman play Inman and Ada, two Southerners whose budding romance is cut short when he goes off to fight in the Civil War.
Eventually joining her in that endeavor is a feisty young woman named Ruby, played with a whole host of annoying, self-conscious mannerisms by the usually reliable Renee Zellweger.In ambiance and plot, `Cold Mountain' feels an awful lot like a warmed over `Gone With the Wind,' right down to the Southern-belle-forced-to-demean-herself-to-survive scenario.
But, apart from a few effective moments, `Cold Mountain,' is little more than a boring, meandering, high-toned soap opera, just the kind of movie that makes Academy members sit up and take notice come nomination time (the film garnered seven nominations and one win  for Zellweger's performance).
Sutherland is good and the support cast of characters met alone the road includes Winstone, Gleeson, Hoffman, Ribisi and Portman - each of who does more than simply make an `oh look it's ..' appearance.Overall this was not as strong as it could have been because the film can't manage to develop a convincing enough bond between Inman and Ada.
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 moviewhile 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
It's a love story in the midst of the horrors of war where young men are sent off to fight, deserters are tracked and killed, and the women and children at home are left to fend for themselves while the men are gone.Anyway i thought Nicole Kidman and Rene Zelleweger were pretty decent and not knowing much about Jude Law, he was all right, also.
Cold mountain is a film that addresses big issues like romance, friendship and the harsh effects of war.
Nicole Kidman is an extremely talented actress and she turns in a great performance as Ada. Jude Law also stars as Ada's love interest, even though he rarely shares the screen with Kidman, the majority of the film focuses on them living apart longing to see one another again.
Law portrayed as Inman, a young man that was very considerate and shy that lived in Cold Mountain (NC) while Kidman was Ada that was forced to mature as her father died.
American civil war was not an exception of these calamities, and in my opinion, this is what the director Anthony Minghella wanted to emphasize in this drama starred by young Jude Law and backed by Nicole Kidman and always efficient Renée Zellweger.
Neither Ada (Nicole Kidman) nor Inman (Jude Law) came across to me as star-crossed lovers, although I suppose that the point of the movie was that it was their love for each other that gave them hope, and the strength to get through their trials.
The former is a Civil War melodrama about Inman (Jude Law), a Confederate soldier who deserts the army to return to Ada Monroe (Nicole Kidman) a girl he barely knows.
Although Rene Zellweger won the most acclaim, I actually think Jude Law steals the acting with his portrayal of a thoroughly honourable 'southern boy' soldier torn between his desire to do his duty to his state and his love (Nicole Kidman).
It was this character that saved the movie.The movie focuses on the journey taken by Inman (Jude Law) on his way back from the Civil War to find his lover Ada Monroe (Nicole Kidman).
Great cast, a powerful story, amazing cinematography, a director whose previous two films I enjoyed immensely - so why does this movie feel so underwhelming and hollow?Well, the biggest obstacle for me is the central relationship of Inman and Ada. I love Jude Law and Nicole Kidman, but their scenes together are the weakest link that ultimately undoes the chain.
There is a difference between a movie about a grueling journey and a grueling movie, but "Cold Mountain" didn't get that memo.Director Anthony Minghella is cut from the same cloth as Sam Mendes: both are non-American directors who try time and again to make the great American movie and fail."Cold Mountain" is about a man (Jude Law) who goes on a bizarre odyssey from the battlefields of the Civil War back into the arms of his true love (Nicole Kidman).
And "Cold Mountain" was no different.Consider; Law goes off to fight in the war while Kidman stays home.
Given I only understand this is based on Charles Frazier's novel about the final days of the Civil War and that is it.It's the final days of the Civil War. Inman (Jude Law), being wounded from the war, slowly made his way home to Cold Mountain to be together with his sweetheart Ada (Nicole Kidman) once more.