MOVIE REVIEW: ‘Cold Mountain’ more perfect than ‘Perfect Score’

Grade: A

After seeing a graphic, depressing, and beautiful depiction of the Civil War and the love story swirling around it, the only thing I could say while the credits rolled was “Wow.”

I walked into the movie thinking about how much I usually hate movies about sappy love, and how irritating actors’ attempts at a Southern accent seem to be. Needless to say, all of my assumptions were proved wrong no sooner than five minutes into the film.

“Cold Mountain” tells the story of a wounded Confederate soldier named Inman (Jude Law) and his treacherous journey back to his home town of Cold Mountain, where his patient, crush-turned-lover, Ada (Nicole Kidman) awaits his return. With Inman gone, Ada must learn to take care of her recently deceased father’s farm, with the help of the drifting tough-chick of the town, Ruby (Renee Zellweger).

It’s not nearly as desolate as it sounds. Among the whole love story going on, don’t forget it is the Civil War, so you can expect some scenes filled with various sorts of violence to keep the easily amused males content.

You might ask: Is this movie worthy of its seven Oscar nominations? Yes, it is. Is this movie deserving of the Best Picture of the Year Oscar? Yes, it is.

Unfortunately, the second question won’t be a possibility, due to the recent snubbing of “Cold Mountain” from the nominee pool for the numero uno honor of the Oscars – Best Picture. But oh well. They have their snubs every year.

Cinematically speaking, I felt the movie was nearly flawless in its schematics. For those of you who really appreciate the dynamics of film, you’ll certainly appreciate the camera-work, editing, and pleasing lighting arrangements the movie consistently delivers.

If any of you read your weekly subscription of Movie-Geek Magazine, you’d know director Anthony Minghella is notorious for his graphic depiction of misery and nudity. I must warn you non-believers, yes, this movie is extremely graphic at certain points. In other words, don’t plan on eating at Home Town Buffet and expect your clothes (or your date’s clothes) to come out of the movie clean of regurgitated food if you don’t have the stomach to handle what the movie dishes up.

Now, if you’ve skimmed all the way to here, this may interest college students: “Cold Mountain” was released on Christmas Day, and is expected to hit the dollar movies within the next week or two. If you plan on going to see it (which you should), it’ll be worth every cent of that wrinkled dollar you found in the washer a couple of days ago. So please, put it to good use. And no, using it on the prize machines at Wal-Mart doesn’t quite qualify for a good use of the dollar. Sorry kids.

Brandon Gibson is a sophomore majoring in print journalism. Comments may be sent to him at bgibson@cc.usu.edu.