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COLD MOUNTAIN
by Peter Sobczynski

December 25, 2003

1/2 (out of 4 stars)

FILM CREDITS: Starring: Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renee Zellweger, Eileen Atkins, Brendan Gleeson. Directed by: Anthony Minghella. Produced by: William Horberg, Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa, Sydney Pollack. Miramax Films, R for violence and sexuality.

Even if you didn’t know that "Cold Mountain" was directed by Anthony Minghella, best known for making "The English Patient", you might have found yourself comparing the two. After all, both are epic films based on dense, complex novels and both are centered on love stories surrounded by the horrors of war. Hell, both even feature long journeys made by their heroes to fulfill promises to return to the heroines. However, while "The English Patient" was an impressive attempt to film a book that seemed all-but-impossible to adapt, "Cold Mountain" feels curiously put together-it jerks together from event to event without any real flow and the two leads display absolutely no chemistry when they are on-screen together, which is somewhat of a negative when it is their passion that is supposed to drive the story in the first place.

Based on the acclaimed 1997 novel by Charles Frazier, "Cold Mountain" is essentially another retread of "The Odyssey", this time set during the waning days of the Civil War. Jude Law stars as Inman, a young man from the town of Cold Mountain, North Carolina who, as the movie opens, is caught up in the bloody siege at Petersburg. Wounded in battle, he receives a year-old letter from the woman he left behind, Ada (Nicole Kidman), imploring him to come home. When he recovers from his injuries, he abandons the Army and sets off on foot to make the long journey home while trying to avoid troops from both sides. Along the way, of course, he runs into a series of colorful characters, including a randy preacher (Philip Seymour Hoffman) on the run from his enraged flock, an aging woman (Eileen Atkins) who gives him shelter despite the potential consequences and an emotionally distraught war widow (Natalie Portman) who will do anything to protect the life of her child.

Meanwhile, back in Cold Mountain, the city-raised Ada struggles to maintain her family farm after the death of her father (Donald Sutherland) while avoiding the evil local guy (Ray Winstone) who covets both the property and her and who has turned the local militia into his own personal army. Eventually, Ada takes in the sassy Ruby (Renee Zellweger, who appears to be channeling a bad road production of "Annie Get Your Gun"), a tough-talking worker who helps Ada save the farm and almost causes her to lose it when the sudden arrival of the father who abandoned her (Brendan Gleeson) sets off a violent chain of events.

This is, even for a film pushing three hours, is a lot of story to cover but for some reason, the usually reliable Minghella (who also adapted another tricky book in "The Talented Mr. Ripley") seems remarkably tone-deaf this time around. Instead of figuring out a way of distilling the essence of the story by streamlining it, it feels as if Minghella shot everything (his first cut of the film was said to be about five hours long) and then yanked stuff out of the final cut at random. As a result, "Cold Mountain" has a jagged feel to it that is disconcerting-characters pop up and disappear at random and it jerks around from event to event without any real sense that things are naturally evolving. (This is especially obvious in the early scenes, which attempt to juxtapose the current plights of Inman and Ada with flashbacks to how they first met but only distract from the momentum of the story.)

During the production of the film, there were all sorts of rumors going around about a passionate affair between Jude Law and Nicole Kidman. Of course, they denied such stories and after watching them together on-screen, I am inclined to believe them. Both are gifted actors but in this film, they strike zero sparks together-the only thing that they seem to share in common are their sparkly eyes. For a story that is centered on a grand, passionate love that survives all obstacles, such a lack of chemistry is fatal. This absence is further highlighted when Portman makes her brief appearance late in the film-she and Law build up such a real rapport during their few scenes together (the moment in which the lonesome Portman begins to weep after touching Law’s hand is so genuinely moving that it is startling) that you wonder why Minghella didn’t just cast her as Ada in the first place. (And she makes such an impression that you may also wonder why Minghella allows her to just disappear without a proper final scene.)

"Cold Mountain" is not a total botch-the cinematography by John Seale in gorgeous (effectively disguising the fact that the film was actually shot in Romania) and there are some good performances among the supporting cast (I also liked Hoffman’s cheerfully degenerate work as the sleazy man of the cloth)-but the parts never quite add up to a whole film. Perhaps a version restoring what Minghella cut-restoring the rhythms that were inevitably lost-might give a better idea of the film he set out to make. In its current version, however, all I can say is that if you must see an adaptation of "The Odyssey" featuring hillbillies, stick with "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"

-- PETER SOBCZYNSKI

Copyright © 2003 Peter Sobczynski
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While the views expressed by Peter Sobczynski do not necessarily reflect the views of Criticdoctor.com, the Critic Doctor will occasionally examine Mr. Sobczynski's film reviews to bring forth an honest examination of those views expressed.