Distributor:
Buena Vista Home Entertainment Certificate: MA15+
Director: Anthony Minghella
Cast: Nicole
Kidman, Jude Law, Renee Zellweger, Ray Winstone, Natalie Portman,
Brendan Gleeson, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Extras: Yes
After
the English patient director
Anthony Minghella was always
going to be known for epic
vistas and stories – ColdMountain,
based on the novel by Charles
Frazier, follows heavily in the
English patients footsteps. At
the height of the American civil
war wounded confederate soldier
Inman (Jude Law) makes his way
home to ColdMountain
with the hope that Ada
(Nicole Kidman), the girl he
left behind, will marry him.
Inman’s travels and the people
he meets along the way are
contrasted with the story of Ada
who goes through a hard time
after she takes over the running
of her dead father’s farm.
ColdMountain does aim for an epic
feel and carries with a certain air of tragedy, the opening battle,
heavy on mud and blood, is very well realised – surely it would have
been like this.
Kidman
looks beautiful as always, whether she is in church or toiling in the
fields, although the further her star in Hollywood rises the more
sculpted and perfect she becomes. Rene Zellweger fares a little less
well as the drifter Ruby whom Ada takes under her wing.
The
big flaw with the movie though is Jude Law, looking far too young to be
playing the war ravaged Inman, indeed at times looking barely old enough
to shave. Inman’s journey is more of a travelogue of short stories as
he enters the lives of people before moving on, there is a particularly
tragic episode featuring Natalie Portman.
ColdMountain is a good movie
though (despite not reaching the heights it hoped for) it’s central
theme of love triumphing no matter how far the distance ensures that.
EXTRAS:
Only extras are a number of deleted scenes.
