Cold Mountain
Starring: Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renee Zellweger, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Director: Anthony Minghella
The film: Anthony Minghella has a history steeped in the traditions of British theatre, and this has enabled him to draw the best out of actors when he's turned his talents to the big screen. Jude Law shone in The English Patient, and Minghella drew the effort of a lifetime out of Matt Damon in The Talented Mr Ripley.
In Cold Mountain - like those two films, a production taken from a successful novel - Minghella again surrounds himself with a talented cast. And he again draws on long-time collaborator John Seale to man the cameras. The result is rich in texture, and vast in ambition. The film follows the tales of lovers Inman (Law) and Ada Monroe (Nicole Kidman), who are torn apart by the American civil war. The shy, retiring Inman heads off to battle, while Ada has to face life on the farm without the menfolk.
That they're separated almost as soon as they meet doesn't add much strength to the supposed bond forged between them - and this becomes one of the film's failings. As they long for each other, you begin to wonder what exactly it is they're longing for - as they never had much to begin with.
Much of the film concerns Inman's flight from the war zone, with cuts to the tribulations encountered by Ada back on Cold Mountain. Seale's sweeping gaze creates a languid atmosphere deep in the southern heartlands, through backwoods and swamps, and on the farm Ada fights to keep going. It creates a slow pace as we shift between the two stories.
