[Burkeman1]

I half like the LOTR's triology but they are toooo Loooong! Bring back the intermission like they used to have!

Totally agree on "The English Patient"- that was insufferable!

[Mamzelle]

The director of Cold Mountain also did "The Talented Mr. Ripley"--one of those exercises in "Why should I care about what happens to all these icky people?"

In the school of storytelling, you have to root for the home team. You have to hope for the protagonist in some way--modern storytelling is like an episode of "LA Law"--you just want awful, bad things to happen to all the characters.

I loved the book "Cold Mountain"--but I don't see how an essentially American story with a geographical location as one of its main characters (a wonderful section of the Blue Ridge) should film in Romania, with Aussies in the lead roles...I suspect it's so strongly Euro that I'll hate it.