01/04 - RAG Magazine

By: Crystal ClarkCOLD MOUNTAINNicole Kidman, Jude Law, Renee ZellwegerDirected by: Anthony MinghellaMiramax, R, 155 minWhether or not you’ve read the bestseller by Charles Frazier, one thing is forcertain as you walk into the theater: the Anthony Minghella-directed Cold Mountainis going to look absolutely amazing, and it does. Minghella, a graduate ofThe English Patient and The Talented Mr. Ripley, has a cinematic gift so innatethat it’s emotionally mind-blowing, and his penchant for visual storytelling isbreathtaking. The rumors are true, Cold Mountain is one of the best movies to bereleased this year; therefore its destiny to invade the Oscars seems par for thecourse. As expected, Jude Law’s Inman is phenomenal in every inch of hisbeing and Renee Zellweger as Ruby is a spitfire to be reckoned with. And whileI’m walking down the path of obvious, a nomination for Kidman would notsurprise me, though most of me feels that it should be someone else’s turn inthe spotlight. Year-after-year, there are so many brilliant performances embeddedon film that ultimately find themselves over-looked in a shallow search ofmarquee names and studios. This is not to discount Kidman’s presentation ofAda in this epic tale of love and commitment, but sometimes entertainers needto go away for awhile in order for us to appreciate them and their artistic craft.Then again, maybe I’m still just pissed-off that Kidman won the Oscar for herwork in The Hours over the more deserving Zellweger in Chicago. Regardless,I’m on Kidman overload and I need a break, but that seems unlikely because shehas not one, but six more movies lined up for release. Which makes me wonder, if I’m this sick of seeing her everywhere I turn,I can’t imagine what Tom Cruise has been going through. It’s no wonder he went to Japan for two years; at the rate Kidman’scareer is going, it looks like I just might be headed that way myself. With my luck, she’ll probably be there filming on location.LORD OF THE RINGS:THE RETURN OF THE KINGElijah Wood, Sean Astin, Ian McKellenDirected by: Peter JacksonNew Line Cinema, PG-13, 201 minBy now, everyone in the world has read, heard, or spoken the perenniallexicons that have become synonymous with the cinematic trilogy known asThe Lord of the Rings: epic, masterpiece, classic, magnificent, stunning, breathtaking,monumental, adventure, visionary, greatness, spectacle, achievement,vast, immense, fairytale, fantasy, storybook, saga, journey, legendary... Infact, I’ve just checked my thesaurus and noted that there are approximatelysixty-five more words that I could have chosen to print that would have essentiallydescribed The Return of the King, and for that matter, the entire 631-minute marathon of The Lord of the Rings. But to be totally honest, I don’t reallycare for any of these words right here, right now. Yes, the words themselvesare lucid, staggering illustrations of how truly beautiful grammar can be andhow essential it is to move people with whimsical words of wisdom. And aquick thumb-through my last ten years of tear sheets exemplifies that not onlydo I admire these words, but I’ve also used every single one of them in print.But not here, not now, and not ever to describe the Lord of the Rings trilogy.There are no words that exist that could capture the essence of its greatness.I mean, his greatness: Mr. Peter Jackson. After the J. R. R. Tolkien / Jacksontrilogy came to an end with the release of part three: The Return of the King, I among others, walked out of the theatre speechless;quite in just the same manor as I did last year after viewing, The Two Towers, and the year before after witnessing the one thatstarted it all, The Fellowship of the Ring. Mere logistics prevented me from reviewing part one and two of this unprecedentedcinematic undertaking, but in hindsight, I’m relieved that I was never available to document my feelings regarding “the precious,”because that would have required me to define the who, what, where, how, and why of this sheer piece of art that is far betterand beyond anything our imaginations could have ever conjured up on our own. Amount that New Line Cinema boldly invested intomaking The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King: 300 million dollars. Global profit made by thestudio from the first two movies as of Dec 2003: 1.6 billion dollars. Estimated profit to be generated by the third installment alone:1 billion dollars. Acknowledging the sheer fact that we not only got our money’s worth, but also experienced the best cinematictrilogy ever created: priceless.RAG MAGAZINE • JANUARY 2004 • 39