By Isaac Mathewson
Directed and written by: Anthony Minghella
Starring: Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renee Zellweger, Philip Seymour Hoffman
A common theme for many love stories is love torn apart by disaster or war. This has been done many times before, most notably in Gone with the Wind and Casablanca. While those films are no doubt classics and carry this theme well, this film puts a different take on it.
Cold Mountain tells the fictional story of W.P Inman (Law) and Ada Monroe (Kidman), two lovers who have been separated by the American Civil War. Close to the end of the war, Inman deserts the Confederate Army after being wounded during the Siege of Petersburg and the rest of film shows his journey across hundreds of miles to reunite with his love in the fictional town of Cold Mountain, North Carolina. Along the way, he meets new people and gets into many misadventures, very similar to The Odyssey, as he evades The Home Guard, who are on the hunt for deserters and Union soldiers (referred to in this film as Yankees).
The film also shows Ada’s civilian perspective of the war as she struggles to run her farm alongside her close friend Ruby Thewes (Zellweger). Ada had met Inman on her first day at Cold Mountain and had a romance with him the day before he joined the Army. Since then, she consistently wrote letters begging him to desert the army and come home to her, despite his better judgement.
What makes the film works is the fact that it does not just show the visceral and violent aspects of the war, but also the psychological aspects. Throughout the film, every character grows through some kind of change. Inman grows from a working man to a soldier traumatized by war and wanting only to reunite with his love. Ada goes from a simple farm girl to a much more independent and strong woman who longs for everything to go back to normal. The film also does a great job depicting the South and how they are not just bad people who want slavery, but are everyday people who have lost so much in a war that they initially thought was going to be over quickly.
The film is absolutely gorgeous to look at. The North Carolina landscapes are absolutely breathtaking and the cinematography is incredible. I also really love the music by Gabriel Yared, especially the piece played during the opening battle sequence.
Speaking of battle sequences, the action scenes in this film are really well done. We really get the feeling that we are actually witnessing the civil war. We get the sense of both the physical and the psychological effects of the war, especially through the eyes of the characters. The opening scene alone is one of the greatest American Civil War battles put on screen along with the climax of Glory.
The most impressive aspect of the film is its cast. It features an all-star cast that includes Philip Seymour Hoffman, Natalie Portman, Donald Sutherland, and Giovanni Ribisi. All of these actors, while they come and go, are great to watch and they are all superb. The leads are also very impressive, but perhaps the one who steals the show is Renee Zellweger who won an Academy Award for her performance. She plays a very tough, but also a very emotional character who carries a lot of depth in her performance. This role, along with her role the previous year in Chicago, is a huge departure from her previous works in romantic comedies such asJerry Maguire and the Bridget Jones films.
While some may argue that the film has too many characters and fails to capture the true horrors of war, this film is no doubt beautiful and it features Oscar worthy performances. It remains a classic love story, as well as one of the best American Civil War movies.