- Film Review
- Reviewed By Dave Aldridge
-
3 out of 5
The dream-team pairing of Jude Law and Nicole Kidman here delivers decidedly less on screen than it must have promised on paper. But it's not entirely the fault of the two leads, as Charles Frazier's award-winning novel dictates that they are kept apart for long stretches of this American Civil War drama. Law and Kidman play southern sweethearts who become separated when he heads off to fight for the Confederacy. The film then follows both his odyssey back from the front, with all the people and perils he encounters en route, and her struggle to survive on the cold mountain of the title. Along the way, Kidman is helped out by a drifter, played rather over-tetchily by Renée Zellweger. Director Anthony Minghella's film is beautifully shot by John Seale and has some great moments, but sadly these are too few and far between. With a running time of over two-and-a-half hours, the abiding impression is of an experience that seems to last almost as long as the Civil War itself.
Plot Summary
Epic wartime romantic drama starring Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Renée Zellweger. Virginia, 1864: following the Battle of the Crater at Petersburg, war-weary Confederate soldier WP Inman goes AWOL from a field hospital and begins the 300-mile trek back to his home, Cold Mountain in North Carolina, and his beautiful new wife.
Cast and crew
Cast
- WP Inman
- Jude Law
- Ada Monroe
- Nicole Kidman
- Ruby Thewes
- Renée Zellweger
- Reverend Monroe
- Donald Sutherland
- Teague
- Ray Winstone
- Stobrod Thewes
- Brendan Gleeson
- Reverend Veasey
- Philip Seymour Hoffman
- Sara
- Natalie Portman
- Sally Swanger
- Kathy Baker
- Esco Swanger
- James Gammon
- Junior
- Giovanni Ribisi
- Maddy
- Eileen Atkins
- Bosie
- Charlie Hunnam
- Ferry girl
- Jena Malone
- Pangle
- Ethan Suplee
- Georgia
- Jack White (3)
- Oakley
- Lucas Black
- Lila
- Melora Walters
- Bardolph
- Cillian Murphy
- Shyla
- Taryn Manning
- Blind man
- Tom Aldredge
- Doctor
- James Rebhorn
Crew
- Director
- Anthony Minghella
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