Best-Selling Novel Becomes A Film Now Nominated As "Best Picture of the Year"

Amidst the hustle bustle of the holidays this season, we were invited to the December 23rd Bay Area premier of Cold Mountain. Our invitation came from Professor David Kennedy, Stanford's acclaimed historian, who was brought in as a consultant during the making of the film. Cold Mountain, starring Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renee Zellweger and Donald Southerland, is an epic Civil War story that sticks with you days after seeing it. It is no wonder this movie has been nominated for 8 Golden Globes. The story of Inman (Law) and Ada (Kidman), is a heart-wrenching, passionate tale of love in the midst of war.

While I did not read the best-selling novel by Charles Frazier, I would hope Frazier is pleased with the adaptation onto the big screen.

This was my first introduction to Jude Law, and I look forward to many more. After seeing him in action, I had hopes that he might be the next Mel Gibson, personal and professional life combined. After seeing him desperately struggle through the war to get back to his love whom he hardly knew, it took something away from the film to learn afterwards of Law's recently failed marriage. While both Kidman and Law will not win The Role Model of the Year for Enduring Marriages, it reminded me of what I respect so much about Mel Gibson, husband of nearly 25 years and father of seven.

Despite Nicole Kidman's own personal woes, on screen she had the soul of both a preacher's daughter, and a woman saving herself for her man. While she is not a Southern belle, she successfully disguised her Australian accent in a way that got you wrapped up in her world "for years" while she waited for Inman to return from war.

The soul connection she also had to her piano and to her female companion, played by Renee Zellweger, was a sight to behold. Zellweger's comic relief brought just that, relief, amidst the death and pain that was so boldly expressed of that time. In fact, as great as the performances of Law, Kidman, Sutherland, Portman, Ribisi, and Seymour Hoffman, Zellweger's performance may have stolen the show.

While I am big into learning more about our country's history, I am not big into being pounded with death, evil and sadness.

However, my sign of a good movie, is to watch the credits roll at the end and realize I have just been swept away into another world that allowed me to forget about the stresses of my own for but a short time.

I recommend this movie to any adult, who loves:

a love story
a war story
American history
triumph over tribulation
award-winning actor, Nicole Kidman
actor, Jude Law
actor, Renee Zellweger
award-winning actor, Donald Sutherland
actor, Natalie Portman
actor, Giovanni Ribisi
actor, Phillip Seymour Hoffman
award-winning filmmaker / director / screenwriter, Anthony Minghella (The English Patient)

To see the movie trailer, go to: Cold Mountain.

This movie is Rated R.

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