The movie is written and directed by Anthony Minghella who did the same for The English Patient. And having seen this earlier film, I can see many parallels, for he definitely follows the same sort of pattern in both movies. For instance, both films tell a love story amidst the backdrop of war. And in both the main characters are more interested in love than they are in war. Both movies seem to make a statement about war (that it is hell, obviously) as they highlight the lost lives and, more graphically, the lives ruined and corrupted by the outbreak of war. Another interesting observation is that both feature one person reading literary classics, poetry, or letters to another as they lie in bed. In The English Patient, it was Hana (Juliette Binoche) reading to a disfigured Count Laszlo de Almásy (Ralph Fiennes). In Cold Mountain, it is a volunteer reading a letter to an injured Inman (Law), or Ada (Kidman) reading Wuthering Heights to Ruby (Renée Zellweger).

In addition, this movie, not unlike The English Patient, will be going after a lot of awards. The talk is that Nicole Kidman may wind up winning the Oscar for her performance, but I was personally more impressed with the supporting cast: (Renée Zellweger, Kathy Baker, and Natalie Portman). Zellweger (left) plays Ruby, a homely girl used to being on her own and working the farm. She contrasts perfectly with Kidman's Ada, who in her words hasn't done anything in her life which has "produced a result." Zellweger's accent is thick and her appearance on-screen starts with a bang when she rips the head off a rooster which has been pestering Ada. Kathy Baker is great as their neighbor, Sally. She begins as the kind, outspoken woman who looks out for Ada and winds up being a shy mute as the result of a horrible tragedy which we witness in all too graphic detail. Finally, I was really blown away by Natalie Portman's role as Sara (right), a woman living on her own and caring for a sick baby in a one-room house with nothing but some corn, a rifle, and a hog. She has only a brief appearance in the film, but in that span we see her cautious caring for Inman which begins to turn to bold attraction only to give way to pitiful weeping when he professes his love for someone else. Her character provides perhaps the film's most shocking moment when she shoots a Union Soldier dead after having been mercifully let go by Inman, not to spoil it or anything. :) In any case, hers is simply one of the best performances I've ever seen.

However, what I'll always remember about this movie isn't the love story, or the brilliant acting, or even the statements about war. What I'm taking away from the film is the way in which these people lived and survived in the hills of the deep South. Seeing Kidman at her wit's end living in a large house and not knowing how to survive on her own makes me wonder if I'd do any better in similar circumstances. Later we see how "the goat lady" was able to get along just fine with a small house, barely big enough to fit a bed, and a few goats which she used for "milk, cheese, love, and when the time comes, meat." And Portman's character, raising a baby on her own was reduced to tears as she pleaded for her hog and her life, for as she stated, "Please don't take my hog! If you do we won't survive the winter." What that must have been like I couldn't even pretend to know with several grocery stores within a 5 minute drive.