(rated R) Cold Mountain is an epic about the cold realities of survival skills post Civil War. City-educated girl, Ada Monroe (Nicole Kidman), finds herself alone on a Carolina farm, when her Reverend father (Donald Sutherland) dies. Suddenly she’s confronted with responsibilities she’s never encountered, as the word “crop” is not in her vocabulary. Inman (Jude Law) is an injured soldier making his way back home to her through more hardship and disasters than anything Clark Gable ever endured in “Gone With The Wind”. Anthony Minghella reunites with Law (“Talented Mr.Ripley”) in a huge Miramax risk that will most likely pay off, since Minghella knows this kind of tough as nails directing. Can you say “The English Patient?” But it’s Ruby (Renee Zellweger) who shows up as a cowhand, Ma Kettle type, to save Kidman’s day and steals the movie with her mustered spunk. Based on the Charles Frazier best-selling novel of the same name, aside from some skilled acting and downbeat depiction of human endurance, the only real problem is that the lead lovebirds Kidman and Law, barely spend any screen time together.
