Cold Mountain   
 

Inman: Jude Law

Ada: Nicole Kidman

Ruby: Renee Zellweger

Stobrod: Brendan Gleeson

 

Directed by Anthony Minghella

Screenplay by Anthony Minghella

 

Based on the book by Charles Frazier
It has to be tough to attempt to make a movie from a book endeared by many.  Especially a contemporary one (as opposed to an older trilogy whose fans, after waiting so long, would have hailed any interpretation as a masterpiece).  Cold Mountain won the National Book Award in 1997 and adorned the bestseller list for most of the following two years.  It's a rare combination for a novel to achieve both commercial and critical success.  Needless to say, the movie adaptation was eagerly awaited from Anthony Minghella (The English Patient).   

Unfortunately, the key notes of the book are sacrificed for the sake of a love story.  Cold Mountain is about the journey of a man across a divided, yet growing country.  His many encounters along the way home help shape his outlook on the war, on life and on love.  Meanwhile, back at home, the friendship developing between Ada and Ruby gets stronger as Ada learns how to become more self-reliant.  The bond they create in the absence of men is strong.  As the Civil War raged on and took more and more young men from their homes, the women had to make this transition.  Ruby had already been there, and was helping Ada learn to adapt. 

These are the significant stories from the novel that get tossed aside in the movie.  The movie portrays Inman and Ada as people who can only think about each other.  However, their love is not the backbone of the real story, it is the catalyst, and this is where the movie fouls up.  The first act of the movie is devoted solely to this budding relationship between Inman and Ada, and Ada's voice-over of "come back to me" echoes throughout the movie. 

The people that Inman meets on his way home are reduced to anecdotal encounters used to offer comic relief or a brief moment of character introspection.  When, in fact, they should be vivid representations of the changing nation and embodiments of Inman's new perspectives.  Important moments and characters are swept under the rug as Minghella forces the love story and uses it to push the movie through to the end.

The movie is only partially saved by strong acting and beautiful camera shots of the wintry mountains.  But, ultimately, the stunning prose of Frazier is lost to Minghella's one-liners and exposition.  And the beauty of Inman's, Ada's, and Ruby's struggles and discoveries lose out to make way for a tepid, unpersuasive movie romance.