In movies hyped as perfect films, finding flaws can be especially painful. Cold Mountain happens to be one of those movies.
Cold Mountain, based upon the award-winning novel by Charles Frazier, is certainly one of the best films of the year. However, it has a few errors and missteps, both obvious and hidden.
Ignoring the negative things for a moment, beauty and greatness are bountiful in this romantic war epic. The story is set during the Civil War, and may be one of those rare movies that doesn't glorify either the Union or Confederate sides of the battle. Instead, there are good and bad guys on both sides. It's odd, but refreshing, to see that the characters aren't caricatures that have been broadly painted so audiences don't need to figure out who to root for.
The main characters are Inman and Ada. Inman has lived in Cold Mountain, N.C. and worked like all of the other men in the town. One day, Ada, the beautiful daughter of a Charleston minister, comes to town while her father becomes the new town minister. Ada and Inman have a few awkward conversations, but seem to have some sort of connection. Inman is called to war, like all of the other able men in the small city, but kisses Ada before he leaves.
This is where the magic of the movies must come into play, or else you won't buy anything else about this movie. We are meant to believe that after one kiss, Inman would be willing to go through thick and thin to come back to this woman, who would be willing to wait for him through thick and thin. I buy it, for a number of reasons: Inman doesn't have a whole lot left to live for aside from her after three years of fighting, nor does Ada. Also, if Nicole Kidman kissed you, wouldn't you at least consider coming back to her?
The storyline jumps back and forth between the first few meetings between Inman and Ada, and Inman's fighting in the war. The story opens on a battle in Petersburg, Virg. in July 1864, which went poorly for the Union. A plan to blow up several Confederate soldiers backfired. Inman is quite obviously battered and disillusioned by all the fighting. He finds himself in the hospital after getting shot. When he hears Ada's latest letter, imploring him to come home to her (her father has died, and she has no idea how to tend a farm, cook, sew and many other things), he decides to make a lengthy trek back to Cold Mountain.
Inman walks back home and encounters such odd folk as a preacher whose ethics come in conflict with the Lord's Commandments; a widow and her infant son; an old healer; and a conman. Meanwhile, Ada gets some help in the form of Renee Zellweger - I mean, Ruby Thewes. (Sorry, I get the two confused quite often.) Ruby is as knowledgeable as a person can be when it comes to tending a field.
Zellweger brings a desperately-needed, over-the-top charisma to Cold Mountain. After some trouble, Ada and Ruby become good friends. However, the Home Guard, led by the malicious Teague (a man whose family used to own all of Cold Mountain), keeps coming around the house to harass Ada.
This is another one of those sprawling, epic movies with love at the forefront of all things. Despite the fact that Inman and Ada have six scenes together, we can easily believe that they love each other. Something just seems right about the chemistry of their pairing.
Anthony Minghella, director and writer of both this picture and The English Patient, has crafted a wholly believable story. Audiences can easily invest themselves in the film from the opening scenes. Minghella also knows how to make a movie look beautiful. The cinematography, by John Seale, and the production design, by Dante Ferretti, is lush, grand and completely Oscar-worthy.
However, beauty is sometimes too much. I'm talking about Nicole Kidman. If ever you had a doubt in your mind that Kidman is one of the most gorgeous women in Hollywood, Cold Mountain will certainly destroy the doubt. It's a nagging problem, though. Kidman's character, Ada, has the amazing ability to work in the fields all day for months at a time without letting a speck of dirt reach her body. I know she's beautiful, but is Kidman really so vain that she can't have dirt on her?
Renee Zellweger, also a beautiful woman, does not have this problem, but that's because her character is more down-to-earth. Zellweger does not come out of the proceedings unscathed, however. I wish I could ask her if someone told her to shout every single line she has in the movie. I would be willing to accept that the sound system at the theater was too loud, but I doubt it. The other characters talk in normal tones, but not Ruby. Every bit of dialogue is yelled at the top of her lungs. Sure, when you're 30 feet away from someone, yell all you like; Please don't do so when sitting next to a person.
The battle scenes, which make up most of the first 30 minutes of Cold Mountain, are grim and bloody. However, they are confusing as well. It took me a little too long to figure out who had lived, who had died, who had hidden where and other things. I am fully aware that fighting in the Civil War, or in any war, for that matter, is confusing and hellish. I know that Anthony Minghella is trying to capture the chaos of war, but confusing the audience in the first 30 minutes is a bad idea.
The flaws end up as minor mistakes, though. It's hard to not be moved by this movie, a powerful slice of the grimness of the Civil War. Jude Law, as the quiet Inman, is fantastic and proves he can play both a charismatic supporting character and an inwardly desperate leading man. Aside from her apparent superpower of not getting dirty, Kidman is very good as a woman who needs help but refuses it until it's forced upon her. Despite her shouting, Zellweger is a funny and brash tonic for the depressing tone.
And it is lucky that the supporting cast is as colorful as can be, including Philip Seymour Hoffman as the preacher, Natalie Portman as the widow, Eileen Atkins as the healer, Giovanni Ribisi as the conman, Melora Walters as his wife, Brendan Gleeson and Ethan Suplee and Jack White (Yes, the guy from the White Stripes) as a trio of musicians, Kathy Baker as Ada's helpful neighbor, Ray Winstone as Teague and Charlie Hunnam of Fox's old TV show "Undeclared" as his albino cohort. Each of them gets a great scene and pulls their weight in this picture. The standouts are Hoffman, Portman and Winstone.
At the end of the day, Cold Mountain is a fine film, encumbered only by the facts that Nicole Kidman is incredibly beautiful, no one told Renee Zellweger to quiet down and no one told Anthony Minghella to clear up his battle scenes. Other than, it's a great movie.
Josh Spiegel is an entertainment reporter for the Web Devil. Reach him at joshua.spiegel@asu.edu.
