‘Cold War’ review — A love story without any heart

Cold War is stunningly crafted black-and-white love story set in postwar Poland that lacks the emotional substance to make it truly great.

In Cold War, the war isn’t the only thing that’s cold. The film follows a two-decade-long romance between Wiktor (Tomasz Kot)—the music director of a folk music academy tasked with capturing the culture of the rural citizens of Communist-era post-war Poland by forming a dancing chorus of desperate rural kids to tour around the country—and a member of that chorus named Zula (Joanna Kulig).

However, director Paweł Pawlikowski—he won Poland the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film for his film Ida—doesn’t seem as interested in the emotions behind the romance as he is the aesthetics around it. The romance feels cold while the gorgeous crisp black and white cinematography makes the film feel alive. 

It’s no wonder, though, why Pawilkowski makes the film breezy as it skips from plot point to plot point. The story is based off his parent’s real-life romance—the protagonists are named after his parents—that unfolded around the Berlin Wall. 

The movie often feels like someone telling a story. But not a skilled storyteller like Rose in Titanic as she meticulously breaks down every feeling and every sense and emotion that came with her experience. No, Cold War feels as clinical as a story can come. It feels like a series of connected plot points that never bring the characters into focus enough for you to detect any emotions off of them.

I don’t think the movie actually wants to endear you to its characters. If it does, it is doing a terrible job as you learn nothing about either protagonist—not their motivations or their backgrounds or their vices or their desires. Instead, its approach to the story is communicating a sensation of fate and attraction. It doesn’t busy itself with the mechanics of love. Just the feeling.

In that aspect, Pawilkowski and his Ida cinematographer Łukasz Żal succeed. The movie’s intimate 4:3 aspect ratio coupled with the sharp hyperrealistic black and white cinematography gives off a nostalgic feeling. And the jarring transitions from one scene to another—often skipping years—add a layer of regret and melancholy to the film.

If anything, Cold War works better as a mood piece than it does as a story. 

Wiktor and Zula bounce from city to city over the years rekindling their love tryst. What ends up connecting them is music. You watch the landscape of music around them change over the years—from folk to jazz to rock n’ roll. That’s the one constant in their turbulent relationship.

Then, the movie comes to an abrupt stop. As cold as the relationship at its center. Are the characters different people from when we first met them? There’s no way to tell considering we know nothing about them. However, the sentiment of the ending is there. At least that you can derive.

There’s value in a film like Cold War. However, it’s a film I respect more than I actually enjoyed. The craft—from the cinematography and score to the sound mixing and production design—is impeccable. Some of the best of the year. Yet I found little to latch onto.

Cold War will be in theaters on December 21st.