Cold Mountain

Renée Zellweger & Nicole Kidman in Cold Mountain

It's a shame that something happened to Cold Mountain on the way to the Oscars®. Nicole Kidman's straight man performance next to Renée Zellweger's over the top comedy routine was worthy of a follow up nomination to her prior win for The Hours. It's one of those situations where the actor is so good that it looks easy. Jude Law was rightfully nominated for his role. It's clearly his best so far.

If you go through the double DVD release of Cold Mountain, it's also easy to wonder why director Anthony Minghella was passed over as well as the film. It's stunning to realize all of the work that went into recreating Civil War-era North Carolina in Romania. The mind boggles.

It's a great story, both as a love story and as a history lesson. I had not previously paid much thought to the violence inflicted by each side of the war on its own side. And I had previously fallen prey to the belief that the North were the good guys and the South were the uppity guys...even though I have Southern roots. This movie helps disabuse those notions.