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Cold mountain cast6/14/2023 The productions and locations are sweeping and dynamic, giving an organic feel for the era and adventure, while Gabriel Yared's remarkable score touches the film with audible awe and John Seale's lush cinematography absorbs both the beauty and brutal grit of the environments. ![]() Bumpy transition, I know, but if I could just cut to the chase, as flawed and ultimately rather underwhelming as the film is, it's still one to watch and enjoying watching from, if nothing else, a technical stance. The film boasts potential for uniqueness, or if nothing else, as much potential for excellence as most any other dramatic war and adventure epic, yet ultimately comes out as just another workmanlike piece in the batch, complete with much to like quite a bit. This film has its formula and plays that structure up on a bit of a loop, running the same repetitive straight line, and with the aforementioned genericisms and dullness slowing down the film's momentum even further, after a while, this should-be razor-sharp epic loses steam, and ultimately comes out as same-old-same-old, on the whole. This, of course, augments the film's central flaw of being very slow and dry in tone, topped off with moments of dreamy meditation that simply dull down an already dull film even further, and while the film does pick up at just enough moments, it reaches those pay-offs through the longest of routes, and routes that it circles around all too often. ![]() The dramatic aspects affect more often than not, yet go tainted by the waters poisoned by the faultier points in drama, as the film sometimes shrouds its attempts at resonance with a histrionic aura, from which melodrama is born, and with it, a couple of points in emotional distancing. The film is not necessarily pretentious in its overambition, yet it improvably attempts to secure itself as critic bait, not being thorough enough in its celebration of its conventions and ambitions to disguise them as missteps, bringing the film's flaws more to the forefront and damaging other aspects to the final product, particularly the dramatic aspects. In concept, the film boasts many unique touches as a film of its type, yet in execution, the film is a highly conventional one, falling into many of the tropes that are to be expected from other films of its types and certainly to be expected from films this ambitious. Anthony Minghella's experiment with a more "American patient" (Get it?) isn't without its bumps. Still, even with all of the talent and good looks behind it, Mr. Ah, nevermind, I think we can get over it, because, say what you will about England and what is essentially its Canada for taking our American roles, they sure know how to play them. Oh lord, first Mel Gibson, then our Civil War movies, and now the Aussies are taking our country music speaking of wars, let's hit Down Undah before they take the rest of our entertainment. Man, California seems to be getting by relatively just fine with all of its Latinos, so maybe they should worry more about the English and Aussies coming in and taking everyone's jobs, even though this film, even with its director also being English (The director of "The English Patient", at that), did do a pretty good job at getting foreign performers, or rather, perforeigmer, because with that beard, Jude Law is passing for a good ol' fashion 'Merica, and Nicole Kidman will always have an immediate pass, not just because of that good ol' fashion American rear, but because she's married to Keith Urban. Granted, it was America at war with itself, but still, it was messed up, man, especially when you consider how much they had to go out of their way to find Americans to kill, because according to this film, there weren't a whole lot of actual Americans in the Civil War. No, but seriously though, it is rather difficult to imagine such a generation of gentlemen putting those bayonets to good use, yet make no bones about it, war is war and has always been hardcore, even back in the days of the gentlemen, because the Civil War claimed more American lives than any other US war in history. As Inman makes his perilous journey home, Ada struggles to keep their home intact with the assistance of Ruby (Renée Zellweger), a mysterious drifter sent to help her by a kindly neighbor.įinally, a film that's unafraid to show the brutal, violent horror of the *snicker* Civil War. ![]() Inman (Jude Law) deserts his unit and travels across the South, aiming to return to his young wife, Ada (Nicole Kidman), who he left behind to tend their farm. In this classic story of love and devotion set against the backdrop of the American Civil War, a wounded Confederate soldier named W.P.
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