Hieronymous the Anonymous: Not worth the watch

If a great book, a couple of the more interesting actors going around, and terrific photography count for anything then the movie of ‘Cold Mountain’ should have been a beauty.

That’s the theory, but in real life theories rarely last, and so it was this time. I watched ‘Cold Mountain’ on Friday night and despite it having a great story found myself largely bored and unmoved.

The same guy who made this also made ‘The English Patient’, and he has set about this movie much the same way as that, creating an epic story of love, as the movie posters probably had it. Now I actually liked ‘The English Patient’. I liked the desert scenes and found the unfolding adventure of the plot fascinating. The love affair to I felt instinctively moved by, its combination of sensuality and eroticism felt like something I knew in the pit of my stomach. It was a great story, and while many bagged it I enjoyed it greatly – and the book too.

‘ColdMountain’ has many of the same story elements, and Anthony Minghella has tried to make the same sort of movie. This time around though his touch is not nearly as sure or delicate, and the mild flaws of ‘TEP’ have widened into serious cracks in the story.

This movie is way too long, thanks largely to the ponderous pacing and the seeming need to have the solemn and worthy aspects of the story writ large across the screen. The screenplay is just wrong, too self-consciously pretty at times, and much of the ‘grit’ in the book is lost here on the big screen. It is over-embellished and over-done.

I remember reading the book and thinking Inman was a great character, I admired him for his resilience and resourcefulness, as well as his determination.

Ada was a character I would similarly have braved marauding bands of rebs and Union troops to get back to. I lived the story as I read it, and wanted them to get back. I think Jude Law and Nicole Kidman are terrific performers but their characters seem paler here on screen than on the page – but that, I think, is due to the screenplay and direction.

Frustrates you a bit. Don’t know why more people don’t let the story speak for itself. The book of 'Cold Mountain' has a great story with themes that everyone can feel. The movie would have been so much better if it had been made ‘smaller’ and simpler, had the scale been reduced from epic to the human so that we can all share in it. It’s a waste. Clearly they had the awards in site and made the film accordingly – losing the story in the process.