Cold Mountain hasn’t made many (if any) critics’ Top 10 lists for the year, if it has it has been in the lower half of the list. It has won no critics’ awards. Entertainment Weekly gave it a B- in this week’s issue. RottenTomatoes.com readers have given it only a 76% rating.
Overall, the film is described as well-meaning and nicely acted but uneven and wholly lacking in chemistry between Jude Law and Nicole Kidman. Renee Zellweger, Natalie Portman and Philip Seymour Hoffman are considered better in the film than the two leads, though Zellweger is said to chomp on some props in a couple of key scenes.
(Having seen the movie this weekend, I’d agree with all of these contentions.)
And yet this movie is considered a major Oscar contender. In the same issue of Entertainment Weekly in which it’s given a mediocre review – especially given the “epic” status that the marketers are attempting to pin on it – it’s shortlisted for Best Picture and for awards for all three main actors.
This is another Miramax flick, and they’re known for having an Oscar barnburner, but in this case, is it deserved?
There are only five spots for Best Picture nominations. Am I the only one who is going to be gravely disappointed if all this hype puts Cold Mountain into the final five – especially if it means that smaller, less commercial but infinitely better films like Lost in Translation, In America or Monster are passed over?
I haven’t seen it, but I think part of it is that Oscar voters like everyone involved. Witness:
Director - Anthony Minghella (won for English Patient)
Writer - Anthony Minghella (nominated for English Patient and Talented Mr. Ripley)
Nicole Kidman (won in 2003, nominated in 2002)
Jude Law (nominated in 2002)
Renée Zellweger (nominated in 2002, 2003)
Add in that it’s an epic historical drama, which is always a good category to win Best Picture noms from. This kind of movie may be boring, but it appeals to the older Oscar voters and there’s less of a chance they will hate it and outright dismiss it.
I wouldn’t have a problem with Minghella (if nothing else, it is a very beautiful movie to look at) or Law getting a nom, but really, didn’t Adrien Brody play this exact character last year in The Pianist (and much better, I might add)?
I was pretty ambivalent to the film overall, but it did confirm my suspicions that Philip Seymour Hoffman (“The Israelites are free!” or something like that )is one of the five best actors in Hollywood today.
I thought it was good but it wasn’t great. The beginning was incredibly slow… the first hour felt like two, but luckily the rest was excellent. The romance seemed kind of weak…
This is an important point. While I would dearly love to see ROTK win Best Picture, it would not shock me to see it jobbed for a film from a more “respected” genre. Because we all know that films about wizards and magic rings cannot possibly be Art.
Anthony Minghella was “snubbed” by his peers. The DGA has been a reliable precursor of the BP and BD Oscar winners - only two movies that have been snubbed by the DGA have gone on to win the Oscar BP: Hamlet in 1948 and Driving Miss Daisy in 1989.
(from another board, I certainly didn’t know that)
The hype for “Cold Mountain” was created before the movie was released. It was expected that the movie would be spectacular, and so it got Oscar buzz.
Now that more and more people are seeing it and saying “huh, that wasn’t all that fantastic,” the movie’s Oscar support will probably fizzle. It’ll get nominated for some stuff because Miramax pays for it, but I think it’ll flop in the final tally.
This may be true of DGA nominees, but not necessarily of DGA winners, where the accuracy has suffered recently (2 of the last 3 DGA winners didn’t go on to win Director Oscars).