Cinema Tuesdays Review

"Cold Mountain," based on the sprawling novel by Charles Frazier, was supposed to be Miramax's epic Oscar contender when it came out in December, 2003. While it was nominated for seven Academy Awards, it came up short at the ceremony, overwhelmed by the Lord of the Rings steamroller. Renée Zellweger was the sole winner from the film, taking home the Best Supporting Actress trophy for her role as a plucky tomboy.

While the film admittedly does not reach the emotional heights it tries to set itself up for, it does work on a visual level, and the supporting cast is excellent.

The film opens with a dramatic recreation of the famous Battle of the Crater, when Union soldiers blasted a hole underneath the Confederates, and then made the mistake of running into the huge crater formed by the explosion. For the Confederate soldiers, it was a turkey shoot to pick off the Northerners. Inman (Jude Law) is a Confederate soldier involved in the battle. Through flashbacks, we learn that before he was sent off to fight, he briefly met and fell in love with Ada Monroe (Nicole Kidman). During the war, the two write dozens of letters to one another, but few are delivered. Nevertheless, Inman makes his mind up to desert the Confederate army, return home to Cold Mountain, and to Ada. His journey is a loose adaptation of the Odyssey, complete with sirens and a blind prophet.

Inman is also a largely silent character, and so the people he meets on the way are often more interesting than Inman himself. Here, the supporting cast, including the always reliable Philip Seymour Hoffman, Giovanni Ribisi, and Natalie Portman as a young mother, excels.

Ada's in-person friendship with Ruby (Zellweger) is actually a more interesting relationship than the psychic one she shares with Inman. And Ruby is quite a character; it's easy to see how Academy voters finally saw Zellweger's "charm" on this, her third time around at the Awards.

I would have liked to see the film deal even more with the politics of the South, and on the DVD of "Cold Mountain," we're able to see some deleted scenes that do hint at the way Inman and others really feel about the war. Other deleted scenes expand upon scenes already included in the film, and at least one scene that did not make the final cut drastically changes the fate of one character.

A documentary on the making of "Cold Mountain" is comprehensive, and even offers footage of one of those mysterious "test screenings" you may have read about, where a small audience is asked to rate the film and offer their opinions on specific aspects of it. I guess that's how some of those scenes got cut; it's how a three-hour movie becomes a 2 hr. 34 min. movie.

"Cold Mountain" really shines through its music. Gabriel Yared's score is effectively sparse, melodic, and fitting for a film set in 1860s America. Period songs sung by the actors provide a good break from the heavy narrative, and a group of Sacred Harp singers was enlisted to provide the right sound for some scenes set in church. The two Oscar nominated songs, "You Will Be My Ain True Love" and "Scarlet Tide," were the best musical moments at this past year's Academy Awards show. In the film, the former provides a haunting and melancholy accompaniment to the Battle of the Crater scene. I'd recommend the soundtrack of the film.

For those who enjoy this music, the DVD set also includes a 90-minute special presentation recorded at UCLA's Royce Hall, "Words & Music of Cold Mountain." This live show (taped in December 2003?) featured principal actors from the movie reading from the book and screenplay, an interview with director Anthony Minghella, and best of all, musical performances by Sting, Allison Krauss, Jack White, and the Sacred Harp singers featured in the film. The DVD also includes a too-short interview with soundtrack producer T-Bone Burnett, about the history of Sacred Harp singing.

While "Cold Mountain" may falter a bit in establishing the connection between its two leads, the film is wonderful to look at and listen to. One thing a good DVD set can do is to truly enrich one's viewing of a film, either before or after the main feature, and this set succeeds.

7/9/04

Back to the main Cinema Tuesdays Reviews page

More about the Cinema Tuesdays series