Inman: Jude Law
Ada Monroe: Nicole Kidman
Ruby Thewes: Renee Zellweger
Reverend Monroe: Donald Sutherland
Teague: Ray Winstone
Stobrod: Brendan Gleeson
Veasey: Philip Seymour Hoffman
Sara: Natalie Portman
Sally Swanger: Kathy Baker
Esco Swanger: James Gammon
Junior: Giovanni Ribisi
You need to be very careful when going to the cinema at
this time of the year.
We’re right in the middle of awards season, the time when the studios release
their big guns in an attempt to win an Oscar. This usually means a big budget,
star-laden period film that tries to blend craft and worthiness with a
commercial edge - see The English Patient, A Beautiful Mind and
Shakespeare in Love for recent examples.
Now Anthony Minghella is attempting to repeat the success of The English
Patient with his latest, the American Civil War epic, Cold Mountain.
Unfortunately, Cold Mountain is neither artful nor worthy - it’s a soap opera,
its central romance as convincing as a Barbara Cartland novel or a Troy McClure
movie and, though it looks wonderful and is expertly played, it’s ultimately
paper-thin and vacuous.
Ada Monroe (Nicole Kidman) is an educated and well groomed young woman
who moves with her minister father (Donald Sutherland) to the small
North Carolina community of Cold Mountain from war ravaged Charleston. There
she meets the taciturn labourer, Inman (Jude Law) and the pair quickly
develop an interest in each other. But, this being America in the 1860s, a
little thing called The War of the Union intrudes upon their infatuation and
before they can barely steal a kiss, Inman is off shooting Yankees.
When Ada’s father dies (in a scene so telegraphed, you’d think the audience
had never seen a movie before) she is left alone and helpless on their farm,
with only the kindness of her neighbour keeping her from complete destitution.
Just as she’s almost at breaking point, help arrives in the shape of the feisty
Ruby (Renee Zellweger, playing it like she’s auditioning for the Calamity
Jane remake) and between them they get the land back into shape while
becoming close friends. Inman meanwhile, having been wounded in battle,
absconds from his hospital base to try and make it back to Cold Mountain and
to Ada.
The most glaring weakness of Cold Mountain is the fragility of the central
plot. Although I haven’t read Charles Frazier’s novel on which the film is based,
I can only assume it hasn’t been changed too much, in which case, Frazier has
to take most of the blame. How can we possibly care whether Inman makes it
back to Ada when all they shared together was one kiss and a glass of cider?
Without the belief that Inman’s very being depends on his getting home to the
love of his life, all he is is a deserter and therefore a coward. Yes, it
would be nicer to be at home snuggling up to Nicole Kidman than in a trench
watching your buddy’s leg getting blown off, but Inman’s supposed motivation is
spurious at best.
Of far greater interest are the secondary plot threads concerning Ada and Ruby
trying to survive and prosper on the farm and the vicious (if slightly
caricatured) vigilante tactics of the Homeguard, led by Ray Winstone, who
disingenuously use their charter to apprehend deserters to terrorise the
community. Indeed, there are moments in these passages, fleeting moments, when
Cold Mountain threatens to attain the beauty of the great Civil War films like
Glory,
Ride With the Devil
or The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
Neither is Inman’s journey without its compelling aspects, but his eventual
goal is of little concern. And although it’s fun to spot them, it’s still mildly
distracting that the people whom he comes across on his travels are all well-known
faces (Giovanni Ribisi as a deceitful farmer, Natalie Portman as
a lonely young widow). Special mention though should go to Dustin Hoffman,
the best screen actor of the last five years, who is as brilliant as ever
playing against type as a randy preacher.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
