The biggest surprise about Cold Mountain is how much of a "chick flick" it is. This anticipated epic, featuring reliable stars like Nicole Kidman, Jude Law, and Renée Zellweger, takes place during the Civil War and involves a journey across the South. Its production reflects a conscious effort to give the movie a certain level of class in order to be considered for year-end awards. And, when all is said and done, it's tailor-made to appeal to the female audience.

The film will doubtlessly draw comparisons to the original classic "female-appealing" Civil War epic Gone with the Wind, in which the heroine, Scarlett O'Hara, learns to become an independent entity in order to deal with the hardships of  war. That was a strong woman's ideal back then -- and yet, Scarlett still fussed over the man she wanted in her life. Today's woman needs no man, and Cold Mountain, despite outwardly being a love story, actually reflects this. Kidman plays Ada, the woman left behind when the man she fell for, Inman (Law), went off to fight for the South. She misses him, but, as time progresses, she seems more and more prepared to accept the possibility he may not return. She loves one man, but otherwise does not need one.

Ada doesn't learn to become tough on her own, as Scarlett did. She has to be whipped into shape by the ultimate independent woman, Ruby (Zellweger), who knows how to farm land, construct fences, wield rifles, and do everything needed to survive. By the time Ruby is through with Ada, she'll be aiming rifles too. Ruby's presence counteracts the old-fashioned notion that women just want sappy romance. She isn't waiting for a man, and she essentially shows Ada how not to wait for one as well.

However, Cold Mountain lets the independent romantic woman have her cake and eat it too. While the story is half about Inman, I couldn't help noticing he was basically playing the ideal man for today's woman. He's dedicated, turned off by brutality, ultra-heroic, and sensitive. The movie makes it clear that the Civil War is a man's war -- the men are gung-ho for it, but all it causes in the end is needless suffering and therefore, men can be blamed for its associated pains. But Inman, nearly killed early on, finally has had enough and  deserts to return to Ada, thus showing his enlightenment. Along the way, he performs several acts of nobility, the most notable of which is accompanying a lonely woman (Natalie Portman) with a baby, waiting for a man who will surely not return from the war. The woman misses her husband so much, she asks Inman to lie in the bed with her one night and to go no further. Inman complies, reminding her that he loves someone already, and then holds her in the night. 

What the movie does right is acknowledge the true depth of the protagonists' feelings for each other. They hardly knew one another before Inman had to go away. Any other romantic movie would have him determined to come home to be with the woman he knew he loved like no other in the world. But in Cold Mountain, Inman admits he hardly knew Ada, and at times he is confused about what he's going home to. What memories he does have of her gives him his drive, but nothing in the movie indicates that anyone thinks this could a patented "love that lasts forever." Ada feels similarly, admitting she barely knew Inman, and her initial stagnation is less a direct result of her missing him than it is a combination of that feeling and her inability to take care of herself, due to a lack of practical skills. Once Ruby shows up, Ada learns those skills, and I'm happy to report that after she learns them, she doesn't sit around and pine for Inman as if he's her only goal in life. 

So the woman doesn't need a man, but she knows the one  she would love, and in the meantime she has learned to become self-sufficient. The man she waits for is noble and not deluded about his love, yet driven by the possibilities of it. What we have here is an updated version of a romance story. Passion is tempered with practicality, but it exists nonetheless. Women are as pro-active in construction as men are in destruction. It's a new story to sigh at and cry at, less old-fashioned but packaged in "classic" duds -- old guise, new ideas.

As such, Cold Mountain is fascinating, but I wouldn't call it particularly deep. It suffers from a few cornball elements, like a trademarked evil bad guy (and his evil somersaulting sidekick), and the beginning and ending of the movie are rather weak, full of formality and storytelling rigidness, unlike its middle section, which benefits from a general loosening up. Kidman seems to have been miscast -- she doesn't feel like a southern belle and her accent sticks out at first. She also has little chemistry with Law, which causes a major credibility problem throughout the movie (although the admission of how little they knew each other helps a bit here). It's also amusing how each of the stars seem to have a dramatic entrance. We encounter almost everyone with their face hidden at first, and then it's revealed -- look! It's Renée Zellweger! Look! It's Philip Seymour Hoffman! Look! It's Natalie Portman! It was distracting but kind of funny.

Cold Mountain aspires to the heights of the old star-driven classics, but its various problems cause it to come up well short. If nothing else, though, it emerges as an attempted classic that has been updated interestingly for our day -- this time around, Scarlett wouldn't have a door closed on her at the end of the movie. 

(Released by Miramax and rated "R" for violence and sexuality.) 

Review also posted at www.windowtothemovies.com.