A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: Cold Mountain

Date of original theatrical release: 2003

Details:

Jude Law

Nicole Kidman

Renee Zellweger

Brendan Gleeson

Philip Seymour Hoffman

Natalie Portman

Giovanni Ribisi

Donald Sutherland

Kathy Baker

Screenplay and directed by: Anthony Minghela

Score: +

The Review: Civil War period piece, taken from the novel by Charles Frazier.

Essentially a love story and drama woven through the tribulations of the war: on the battlefield, in the hearth under a repressive home guard, and in between. Nicole Kidman plays a preacher's daughter who has fallen in love with a carpenter (Law) in the rural South, only to be separated from him by the declaration of war. In his absence, she is taught and helped by an independent and quite capable back-country girl (Zellweger). Tension is provided by Law's attempt to rejoin Kidman amidst the particular horrors of this internecine war.

The characters and sense of place are well drawn; the Oscar nominations were deserved.

(24-Apr-05)

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