By Tom Brook Entertainment correspondent in New York

Cold Mountain is an old-fashioned epic with the glittering talent of Nicole Kidman and Jude Law but why has it picked up so much early Oscar buzz?

Law and Kidman spend little screen time together

Cold Mountain is the story of a couple longing for one another in a world laid barren by America's Civil War.

Based on the Charles Frazier bestseller adapted by Cold Mountain's director Anthony Minghella, it is a film that highlights the brutality of battle.

It follows the quest of Inman, played by Law, a war-weary deserter who makes his way home to the woman he loves.

Minghella said his starting point had been his love for the original book.

He said: "I love what it was about. I loved the fact that it was set in the past but had a lot of things to say about the present and it's also a version of The Odyssey.

"So it's got this mixture of characters out of fairytale and myth and legend, and then this really urgent story of what was going on in the mountains of North Carolina during the Civil War."

Memories

Cold Mountain cuts between Inman in battle and his journey home and Ada, as played by Kidman, on the home front.

With a romance set against the backdrop of the civil war it evokes memories of the film Gone With The Wind.

Suddenly it was time to kind of open up and show my heart, I suppose Jude Law

It's all to Anthony Minghella's credit that he's managed to make an epic that is in many ways more profound than that 1939 classic due to the manner in which he explores relationships.

Ada and Inman's relationship exists much more in voiced-over correspondence in the film than it does in hours and minutes spent together on screen.

Speaking about the lovers' separation on screen, Kidman said: "I said to Jude and Anthony early on, if we can make a film about longing, that aches, then I would be very happy.

"In a strange way, it's such a beautiful state to exist in, you know, the state of longing, and if you can somehow put that on screen, then that really interests me. "

Heartfelt quest

Much of the film focuses on Inman's heartfelt quest to return to the community of Cold Mountain and Ada.

But it's not an easy trip - en route he encounters many lawless and barbaric acts and Law said it was hard for him as an actor to really feel what his character experienced.

Zellweger gives a strong performance

"I could never compare what I would consider obstacles to those Inman is faced.

"And there's a certain part of you as an actor that feels that you are presumptuous to imagine that you are anywhere close to feeling what these people certainly in that period went through."

Cold Mountain has been praised for its bold casting.

Renee Zellweger's portrayal of Ada's helpmate and friend is at first a little overdone but you soon accept her portrayal of spirited can-do woman as credible.

Jude Law is very effective as Inman, a complex character with a strong inner life that he doesn't express verbally.

'Trickery'

Law said: "I felt like over the last eight years I've been putting on layers of technique and craft and trying and trickery and all sorts of stuff that has challenged me, but suddenly it was time to kind of open up and show my heart, I suppose."

Nicole Kidman as Ada with the longing heart also gives a compelling performance.

Cold Mountain benefits from its well wrought screenplay adapted from a strong book - one that provides a romance but is really an epic that is all about war and how it distorts lives.

What Minghella brings us very, very effectively is the all pervasive evil engendered by war.

But it's not all bleak because at the centre of the horror is a stirring story told without undue sentiment of human perseverance amid the ruins.

It is the tale of just a man and a woman who against all odds manage to retain their dignity and survive different journeys propelled by the sweet yearning they have for one another.