Cold Mountain is a love story centered around Inman (Law), who has defected from the battle lines to return home to the woman he loves, Ada (Kidman).
The perilous journey has him crossing rough terrain and meeting multiple individuals bent on helping him or ruining his chances of ever reuniting with his love.
At home, Ada is struggling to live on her own, but soon gains the help of a young and boisterous drifter, Ruby (Zellweger).
With such a large cast also including Donald Sutherland, Natalie Portman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Giovanni Ribisi you would think Cold Mountain would be the film of the year, hell it has already received eight Golden Globe nominations. But with a lackluster storyline the only thing saving Mountain from being a total bore is the performance turned in by Miss Zellweger.
Renee takes the role of Ruby and runs with it. providing a colorful addition to a relatively drawn out story. Her strong southern accent, stern directions toward Ada, and her ultimate ability to add emotion to a story fraught with grief and a too obvious of an ending gives viewers a reason to watch this flick.
Too often have we seen a story where a stranded lover is trying to make their way back to the love of their life, but Law and Kidman don’t give the audience any reason to want that love to be refreshed other than the fact that they are separated. Not enough time was spent on building their relationship nor were there any obvious goings on that would lead you to believe that there love was so deep that it would make them suffer so much to be apart.
If it hadn’t been for the life added by Zellweger I may have fallen asleep while I watched. The only Globe nomination truly deserved is hers and it would be a shame to see other flicks denied if this film were to get anything other than a dis-honorable mention.
