Anthony Minghella's Cold Mountain tells the story of two people, Inman and Ada, as they long for each other during the Civil War. Nicole Kidman (Moulin Rouge) plays Ada Monroe, the daughter of a North Carolina preacher (Donald Sutherland of The Italian Job) who moved from Charlestown to the town of Cold Mountain. There Ada meets a carpenter, Inman (Jude Law of Road to Perdition), and from the moment they meet, the sexual tension is obvious. They awkwardly fumble around each other and avoid any real confrontation, lest they make their feelings obvious. Before their love can really flourish, Inman decides to go out and fight for the Confederacy. At their last meeting together, Ada hands Inman a book and a picture of herself, which turns out to be the only thing that keeps him going during the war. After an attack by Union soldiers, Inman is injured. While he is in an army hospital he decides the only way he can survive the war is to escape from it. He makes an early morning getaway from the hospital and begins his trek back to Cold Mountain. Back on the home front, Ada is left alone to maintain her farm after her father unexpectedly dies. A friendly neighbor sends farmgirl Ruby, (Renee Zellwegger of Bridget Jones' Diary) to help Ada keep her farm thriving. The film is visually stunning. The landscapes-shot in Romania-and art direction are beautiful and truly capture the setting of the time. However, as convincing as the scenery is, the story itself is a little hard to believe. As far as the audience knows, the couple shared two awkward moments before their passionate goodbye kiss, and then they spend the remainder of the film longing for one another. They do send each other letters; however, none is received by either party. They comment on their lack of any real connection, yet they continue to long for one another as though they had been in a long relationship. Their passion for each other seems more like of a dream than a reality, however, it is that passion that enables Inman to continue his odyssey back to the woman he loves. He encounters many obstacles that try to prevent him from reaching his goal-from women who want to seduce him to soldiers hunting him down for treason because he escaped the war. Although there is not much of a relationship between Ada and Inman, you don't want him to fall into bed with any of the women he meets along the way. You want him to survive the gun shots and make it back to Ada safely. Similarly, you want Ada to keep up the farm so she and Inman will have a place to live together once he returns.

Despite the focus on the love story, I found myself wanting to see more of Zellwegger. She steals every scene she is in with her humorous role as the rough farmgirl who teaches Ada how to farm, hunt and protect herself from the dangers that lurk around Cold Mountain. Ada begins the film as a timid city girl, unsure of her looks and her abilities, but by the end of the film, Ruby has transformed her into a rough and humble farm girl. Ada has an influence on Ruby as well. Their relationship is more intimate and close than Inman and Ada's ever was, suggesting a possible homoerotic undertone to the film. Ruby did more for Ada's character growth than Inman ever did. She is the one who makes it possible for Ada to survive, rather than the love that she and Inman supposedly shared.

As with many of this Oscar season's films, this movie's biggest asset is the acting, not the plot. The characters with the smaller, more peripheral roles are as compelling as the central characters, all blending together to form a community of people who the audience can really trust and believe, despite the film's unlikely central story.