Cold Mountain

a truly beautiful hidden gem

This is one of those movies where I feel like it could have truly been great, since the main premise was very gripping, but it sadly fails to completely achieve its full potential because it falls short in really selling that premise to me.
The chemistry and connection between the two leads simply wasn’t there for me, which made it difficult for me to actually believe in their love and feel for their separation.
Other than that, though, this movie was amazing. The haunting atmosphere and tragic reality of war and what it does to the land left behind is portrayed beautifully and heartbreakingly.
I also want to give a quick shoutout to Renée Zellweger and her character Ruby, since her performance of a farm girl with a vibrant and almost humorous spirit, despite the setbacks of her rather sad existence, definitely blew some real life and feeling into the movie. When she first entered the screen, that was when I began to feel truly connected to the story and it only went uphill from there!
In other words, it took a little while for me to get into this movie, but it was sure worth it in the end: Very captivating and very hard-hitting. It was a stunning story with beautiful performances and an evocative soundtrack.

I really enjoyed this movie. Great cast.

The southern patient in this film.

A film with a majestic production and a very high potential that turns out to be disarmingly banal. The morbid story with its pathetic ending seems reminiscent of a Way of the Cross. To make matters worse, one cannot help but feel an inevitable sense of dislike for the main character, a petit bourgeois saved by the grace of the 'poor commoners'. Most of the characters generally appear as caricatures of other performances stolen here and there. Some come close to the ridiculous like Ruby Thewes or Bosie. Excluding the film's set design and some performances by untouchable actors, Hoffman and Gleeson among them, _Cold Mountain_ is basically an inexplicably overrated movie. The vision can end after the first quarter of an hour with the Battle of the Crater, which, contrary to the rest of the film, deserves for its accuracy and impact.

I only made it through 38 minutes. The production of the main war scene was great, but ultimately I find myself not caring about the characters at all. Amazing cast, but I’ll can’t even imagine what is going to fill the next 2 hours that I might skim through one day.

Essentially "The Odyssey" set during the tail end of the American Civil War, jam packed with a bunch of great actors that keep this from becoming too bogged down even if you do feel the length at times.