Shakespeare-2

Ben Kingsley richly deserves to be considered as Best Actor at this year's Oscar award ceremony for his role in "House of Sand and Fog". His role as Massoud Behrani, an Iranian colonel who immigrates to the United States, easily ranks among the most stellar male performances of 2003. Kingsley manages to lend warmth and likeability to a character who is not without his faults, namely a sometimes autocratic attitude toward his wife and family, and a certain flair for real estate wheeling and dealing.

But U.S. audiences may not take very kindly to this film, which is harshly critical of American behavior toward the "huddled masses yearning to breathe free" who pass through Lady Liberty's golden door. "House of Sand and Fog" shows how Behrani, a high-ranking official in his homeland, must accept low-paying jobs (manual labour, mom-and-pop-store retail sales) to support his family and pay for his son's education. The film further shows Americans treating immigrants as if they were just off the boat, ignorant of American law and their rights, easily intimidated. It shows Americans continually mispronouncing foreign names and getting angry when foreigners fail to "speak English".

The film is weak in several respects, mainly in its plot devices, which are sometimes crude and obvious. For instance, would police deputy Lester Burdon (Ron Eldard) really become involved with a woman on whom he has just served an eviction notice? And why on earth would he continually drink wine and beer in her presence when he knows she is a recovering alcoholic? As the film progresses, these plot devices snowball into a seemingly never-ending series of misfortunes that assume the epic proportions of Greek tragedy. It's a shame that "House of Sand and Fog" didn't take a different route, one that might have turned the clash and conflict of cultures into comprehension and conciliation.

I would recommend seeing "Cold Mountain" for one reason, and one reason only. The battle sequence at the very beginning of the film is truly a military masterpiece, a scene that graphically conveys the mud, blood and guts of war, masterfully employing the various techniques of cinematography, direction and makeup toward this end. In my view, this is one of the best battle scenes that I have ever seen committed to film.

That being said, "Cold Mountain" fails utterly in other respects -- first and foremost, as the romance it purports and is advertised to be. Jude Law is credible enough as Inman, the Confederate soldier who braves Union armies and the Home Guard of his own state of North Carolina to return to the woman of his dreams. But why on earth would any man spend three years dreaming of Ada Monroe, or at least Nicole Kidman's incarnation of the southern belle? Nicole Kidman's character is truly an ice maiden -- a pale, cold, rather remote and distant blonde. Believe it or not, Nicole Kidman's character is dwarfed and overshadowed by the rest of the cast. Both major and minor characters alike are more colourful by far.

Renee Zellweger may very well garner a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her role as Ruby, a poor backwoods girl (somewhere between Doris Day's Calamity Jane and Donna Douglass's Elly Mae Clampett) who teaches Ada the survival skills her preacher father (Donald Sutherland) has failed to instill.

"Cold Mountain" fails as a romance, but works as a meditation on man's inhumanity to man. One only wishes that the cruelty were not so relentless.

This is a postscript to my earlier review of "Peter Pan". I forgot to mention that Ludivine Sagnier's Tinkerbell is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, one of the most annoying performances in film history.

This is all the more disappointing because this young French actress has shone in two recent films, "Eight Women" and "Swimming Pool". I assume "Peter Pan" is her first role in an American film. Isn't it always the way? Established foreign actors and actresses get lousy parts in American films and must pay their dues all over again.

As Rodney Dangerfield would say, "No respect, no respect..."