An unsuccessful prestige project based on Charles Frazier’s 1998 best-seller, this is a movie with pages sticking out of it. The story is good; the structural
problems are insurmountable. Nicole Kidman and Jude Law cancel each other out as lovers separated by the Civil War, while Renee Zellweger brings some zest as a rifle-toting drifter. Dutifully sweeping, Cold Mountain doesn’t really jump to life until Zellweger shows up and rips the head off a rooster (for which she won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar). From director Anthony Minghella.
