Minghella's movie is stern and lucid for the most part and immensely enlivened by the presence of Zellweger and Hoffman who bring amusement to their roles.

| Jan 11, 2018

Excellent but upsetting, only for older teens.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 22, 2010

If the love story is asked to carry more weight than it can bare, at least this is a film of rich measure and ambition.

| Jun 24, 2006

Grim in places, and at times gratuitous, this is still terrific five-hanky drama with top-flight technical work, horrifically spectacular action, subtle introspection, rich characters and a love story to die for.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 1, 2006

Something to mildly admire rather than embrace.

| Original Score: C+ | May 3, 2005

'Above all, Cold Mountain is a story of women -- abandoned, starving, and learning to rely only on themselves and each other.'

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 23, 2005

Minghella is well served by his cast. Both principals are convincing, if neither rises quite to the heights of genuine tragedy.

| Feb 3, 2004

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 24, 2004

A film of many excellences undermined by a flawed narrative.

| Jan 21, 2004

A good-looking but dull and eccentrically cast romantic drama set during American civil war.

| Jan 15, 2004

Despite fine work by Jude Law and Nicole Kidman, the story feels hollow at its core, the central romance barely resonating as the life-sustaining force it's meant to be.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jan 4, 2004

It takes a lot to make a seated -- and crabby -- film critic go weak at the knees, but Anthony Minghella's Civil War epic did just that with one of the swooniest celluloid kisses I've seen in a good long while.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 30, 2003

There is too much going on, and the Oscar-winning director has trouble bringing it all together in a cohesive whole. That said, there is power to found in Cold Mountain, most of it emanating from Law's controlled and internally dynamic performance.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 27, 2003

Cold is right -- Anthony Minghella's pretty, star-studded adaptation of the bestselling Civil War romance never makes it above freezing.

| Dec 27, 2003

At 154 minutes, Cold Mountain is long and seems long, at times inspired, at times merely dutiful. But in most of the important ways, it succeeds.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 26, 2003

Cold Mountain is the equivalent of comfort food: old-fashioned, earthy, satisfying.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 26, 2003

It's enough of a spectacle to enjoy. It's too bad the stars are little more than serviceable and give the movie title an irony it could certainly do without.

| Dec 25, 2003

It's a great old-fashioned wallow of a time at the movies.

| Dec 25, 2003

Watching this movie, it seems to be the next level down from great -- maybe too episodic. But it burns in the memory weeks after you see it.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Dec 25, 2003

Crowded with fascinating supporting characters, who make the long haul -- the movie clocks in at 2 1/2 hours -- worth attempting.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 25, 2003