Cold Mountain

         Every year needs its own inflated, “Oscar-worthy” epic. Miramax has delivered the perfect Best Picture contender this year with the most attractive talent, expert direction, beautiful though hackneyed photography and, lest we forget, an adapted screenplay full of romance, violence, humor, adventure, tragedy, literary allusion and roused emotion. Jude Law plays Inman, a Civil War Odysseus who deserts the Confederacy in order to reunite with his beloved Ada (Nicole Kidman). Director Anthony Minghella again benefits from Philip Seymour Hoffman’s full potential, despite placing him into a distracting and pathetic role as a sleazy preacher. Natalie Portman is also on hand, unrecognizably talented as a young widowed mother in what may be the most memorable achievement of the film. Cold Mountain can be enjoyed or ignored depending on individual tastes for such craft in which the word “best” can also mean “obvious.”
           (review printed in Where Y'At New Orleans)