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Cold Mountain is one of those films that you watch and either feel extremely bored or spend most of your time trying to figure out where else you’ve seen the plot. Clocking in at a wonderful 2 hours and 34 minutes, it was a freakin dread watching this film. Now, if you are looking for a movie where two people hardly know each other and then become smitten with each other, then this is the film for you. Suppose you are looking for a movie where the two main characters somehow fall madly in love only to be split apart for a significant reason. In that case, this is the film for you. If you are looking for a movie where the woman stays true for her love of the leading man and the man travels through hell and high water for the woman, then this is the movie for you. If you looking for that sassy, tell it how it is side character, then this film is definitely for you. Cold Mountain is that film about love and traveling through the lands to make sure you get back to the love of your life in the backdrop of the American Civil War.
Written and directed by Anthony Minghella, Cold Mountain is a romance story between a Confederate soldier named Inman (Law) and a love he had to leave behind named Ada Monroe (Kidman) to go fight in the American Civil War. Inman becomes wounded in the war and decides to go AWOL and go on this perilous journey to return home to Cold Mountain, North Carolina. Along the way, Inman meets some fascinating characters, from a preacher to a “different” love house to a gypsy in the forest. While Inman is making his way home, Ada’s life entirely becomes upended when her father dies. While trying to learn how to operate her deceased father’s farm, Ruby Thewes (Zellweger) comes along and assists and shows Ada how to do things and make her farm functional.
Okay, so let me make the plot of Cold Mountain the way I saw it. It reminded me somewhat of the Odyssey. Yep, you read that right. The film reminded me of Homer’s epic tale of Odysseus and his grand travel back to his one true love. Now, I’m not saying that it’s exactly like the epic tale, but it has elements of it. Hear me out for a second. Inman falls in love with Ada, but since North Carolina has succeeded from the Union, he enlists and goes off to fight. Odysseus goes off to fight in the Trojan War. After three years of fighting, Cold Mountain differs. Inman fights and survives in a battle only to get shot and reads a letter from Ada to come to him, so he deserts the army and begins a journey. Odysseus survives the war and tries to go home only to disrespect the gods.
Now the elements of the plot that are like the Odyssey is that Inman seems to get in situation after situation after situation on his way back home. At the same time, Ada has to push off and avoid pursers of her hand in marriage. Here are some of the things Inman went through on his journey. He encounters corrupt preacher Veasey and stops him from drowning his pregnant slave lover. Ending up in some house with siren-like women who just want to bang and their pimp only to be captured and shot in a skirmish. Meets an elderly hermit living in the woods, finds Inman, and nurses him back to health. Also meets a young widow and her infant child only for three Union soldiers arrive demanding food and trying to rape her before being killed. Inman travels until he finally makes it home, only to be almost shot by the one he loves. Same thing with Odysseus and his twenty-year journey.
With that, I’m not saying that this film is great by any stretch of the imagination. It felt like the whole film was a copy and paste, and then it got boring after a while. The pacing seemed to throw off the entire movie, or it was like, you can’t keep your ass out of trouble for one second. Also, it was like it took Inman forever to get back to where he needed to be. Maybe also it had these flashbacks that threw off the plot. It was okay to see the development of the relationship, but it should’ve been done in the beginning.
One of the highlights of this film is the cinematography. You feel like you are on a journey with Inman and feeling the struggle with Ada when her pops pass away. On Inman’s side of the coin, the whole battle scene is shot greatly. Is it one of the best battle scenes ever shot? Nope, but it gives you the sense of battle and dread. When someone fights in a crater, then you know shit and death will go down. The whole journey with the house of women, the running through a cornfield, and the look of Cold Mountain all add to the film’s overall appeal. On Ada’s side, you just sense and feel her struggle to the max as she goes from this debutante to someone who really needs to get her hands dirty and becomes a stronger woman in the process.
The part of the film that saves this whole freakin movie is the case but especially Renée Zellweger as Ruby Thewes. When Ruby came on screen, this is when the movie became watchable because she was a different feel or a breath of new life in the whole film. Ruby was this hard talkin, take no shit off of anyone. When she grabbed that rooster and popped his head off and was like, we got food, you will say, “Damn! This woman is hardcore!” Whenever she was on screen, I just felt drawn to her more and more because you wanted to see what would come out of her mouth next.
The two main stars, Jude Law as William “W. P.” Inman and Nicole Kidman as Ada Monroe, did their part. I want too impressed with either one of them. Law seemed to have the same facial expression and tone throughout the film. He seemed to just be there, and I felt like he was one of the few people who needed to show emotions. Kidman, to me, was over the top with her Southern accent and her “oh, I don’t know how to survive” attitude. It just felt like she was trying a little way too hard.
Also, can we take a second to talk about how there are like a ton of people in this film? It looked like if you needed a white actor or actress, they were in this film. I’m surprised that Meryl Streep didn’t roll up in this film because I sat there and tried to name all the people in this film. To name a few, it had Philip Seymour Hoffman, Natalie Portman, Giovanni Ribisi, Lucas Black, Donald Sutherland, Cillian Murphy, and Jena Malone.
Cold Mountain is one of those films you can either watch and be entertained or leave without. I would go with the latter, but also you can watch it to see the fantastic performance of Renée Zellweger as she makes this movie enjoyable to watch. The plot is decent with risking life for love, but it falls flat on its face in the end.
