Cold Mountain

Okay okay...everyone can finally shut up. I finally watched Cold Mountain. For those of you who don't know, Cold Mountain is a feature starring Jude Law, Renee Zellwegger, and Tom Cruises ex wife ( Nichole something or other) based in Civil War North Carolina. To summarize Nicole Kidman's character, a rich and sophisticated lady who has never known the texture of dirt between her dainty pale fingers) moves from Charleston, South Carolina to the small town of Cold Mountain, North Carolina( a rough around the edges mountain town still being built up) with her reverend father who is dying and wishes to spend his last days in the fresh air of the mountains. There she meets Jude law literally a few days before he goes to war to fight a battle that he is really indifferent about...that is until he finds out that he kinda likes this new girl and would rather stay home and kiss than go off and shoot at Yankees. The movie is over the course of time where Law is gone and the course the two star crossed lovers lives take.(yeah. I said it. Star crossed.) While Law is gone Kidman ends up alone due to her father's death. Without money and a knowledge of farming things go south (haha puns.) for her so Renee Zellwegger comes out of literally no where to help her tend to a farm she knows nothing about. Okay now that you're set up... Cold Mountain turned out to be a good movie. A good LONG movie. It wasn't great, it wasn't sub-par, but it did keep me in front of my TV for three hours so... you be the judge. Jude Law, who in my opinion is a better actor than he knows he is, delivers probably the best performance you could have asked him to. Law is English and the Southern accent he prepared for this film was flawless. It wasn't cliche or stereotypical, it just was. He spends most of the movie looking for something to believe in and when he finally realizes it is Kidman, he drops everything to be with her. He literally drops everything. His gun, and his little confederate hat and everything. He deserts the army, treason. Punk right? Wrong. This is so beautiful. We have to get beyond the whole "Aww. He quit the army cause he loves her." deal and be able to see what Law communicates so well. She means more to him than love. She has become faith, love, family, hope, breath....she has become home. When he was home before she came, he wasn't home. He could've left and not thought a thing about dying or leaving his familiarity. Because that's all Cold Mountain was without her. Familiar. Though it seems cowardly, this, to me, looks so much more braver than staying. What he is doing is standing up for something this foolish war knew nothing about... home. This war destroyed everything that was home. It tore apart families, father against son, brother against brother, and drew a line through a place who claimed "In God we Trust." when they had lost the definition to the word Trust all together. His desertion truns to be much more dangerous and detrimental to his health than staying would have been. Besides the raids of men that scour the country sides looking for deserters, he meets many temptations disguising themselves with cloaks of comfort and pleasure. Home away from home. It really reminds me alot of The Odyssey in a way. One of the most striking of these temptors he meets is a reverend who has pregnated a slave girl and attempts to kill her before Law can stop him. After bringing him to his senses Law ties him up to a post in the middle of the town with his crime scribbled and nailed above his head. He reappears at a stream( awesome right? just wait..) later with alot of his hair missing. Apparently the town shaved him of his prideful curls and sent him packing. They find the stream too deep to cross and wouldn't want to swim it anyway(no baptism here) and pay a young girl to carry them across on her boat. WOW! There is soo much there that it's really hard to get to, but just see this... this preacher in one fatal swoop breaks half the commandments and is about to break more and seeks no cleansing becuase he finds himself to be a "man of God". He later leads law into many more temptations. I think this is a pretty self explanatory illustration of the church. Ponder on this: Why are the shepherds always the corrupt ones?
I won't tell you how it ends...but I will tell you I found the ending extremely fitting and well done. Law and Zellwegger deliver phenomenal performances and are supported by countless other great names. ( For instance, the guy who plays the corrupt reverend is a phenomenal actor by the name of Phillip Seymour Hoffman. I have never seem him do below extraordinary.) I would reccomend this movie if you are ready to dig for Truths. But, when you find them they are literally huge and you are glad you brought a shovel.
Good Providence.