My Cold Mountain Retrospective

I re-watched ‘Cold Mountain’ recently as my personal tribute to the late Anthony Minghella. Though never a fan of ‘The English Patient’, I was engulfed with Minghella’s 1999 thriller ‘The Talented Mr. Ripley’, so much to naming it my top film that year and currently holds a place in my top ten list of all time. With 'Cold Mountain' being his next film along with another personal favorite, Nicole Kidman, I was ecstatic when I heard of its production.

I always thought ‘Cold Mountain’ was treated unfairly by both critics and audiences because of its pre-release hype. After all, this was the film that was supposed to derail ‘Return of the King’ and its path to immortality. Much to the ‘haters’ that year who were angered by Renee Zellweger’s Academy Award, I was delighted. She light up the screen with every scene she’s in just as Catherine Zeta-Jones did the year before in ‘Chicago’.

Perhaps the only problem why this story didn’t connect with the most people is due to its parallel storytelling. Even five years later, I didn’t necessarily believe Jude Law’s Inman and Nicole Kidman’s Ada as destined lovers. With only letters interlacing their stories, it could’ve easily been two separate films. If anything, a decision could be made that Inman’s stories could’ve cut short and made Ada a more prominent character.