Mar 14, 2006 04:54 PM
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(Updated Mar 14, 2006 04:54 PM)
Expectations ran high as I was going to watch the movie, friends were jealous that I had managed to grab the tickets for the pic they all had been dying to see. But half-hour into the movie I was a wee bit disappointed. Although the movie captured some remarkable performances, the story at some turns was abrupt while in the others long and boring.
An adaptation of Annie Proulx’s short story, the movie echoes the desolation of the past and showcases the ripple effects of a singular event over a huge number of people.
A rather sad and melancholic feeling pervades the general tone of this haunting yet dramatic movie directed by Ang Lee. His venture into a classic west wing American movie is rather applaudable; instead of the unrealistic take on ancient China with swords and humans flying over treetops, Lee uses the tableau of the of early '60s (a time when life was simple and straightforward with lines between the sexes and sex roles sharply drawn and severely demarcated) to show how two men fall in love despite being bound by their expected roles, and their repercussions for doing so.
The romance here is between two men. Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal); two touring ranchers looking for work in Wyoming who meet and embark on a shepherding job over the Brokeback Mountains. The beautiful brokebackmountains. They fall in love: a love they soon realize only lives and breathes on the mountain. The shy and taciturn Ennis, uncommunicative to the extreme, finds himself opening up around the gregarious Jack, and the two form a bond that surprisingly not just borders but goes beyond the ‘norms’ on one cold drunken night in the wilderness.
One of the powerful lines depicting pretty much the tone of the movie is, Ennis remarking in an effort to reassure himself, “I aint no queer”.
Separated towards the end of summer, each goes on to marry and have children, but a reunion years later proves that, if anything, their passion for each other has only grown significantly. And while Jack a confessed gay harbours dreams of a life together, the tight-lipped Ennis is unable to bring himself to even consider something so revolutionary and is frankly scared by how deeply he feels for Jack. Ennis portrays a man who is unable to deny his feelings at the same time scared to admit he is gay; after having been witness at an early age to the ugly and loathsome acts of crime perpetrated on a Wyoming farmer who had lived many years with his partner.
Amidst all the hype of various agendas, it remains a confusing, dim though quiet and heartbreaking love story that was both of its time and universal. What could have been a breakthrough for mainstream cinema can instead be tagged as a mere ''gay cowboy movie”. Times changing are rather confusing during the course of the movie, only suddenly apparent by the ugly wigs adorned by Anne Hathaway who plays Jack’s wife in the movie. Gyllenhaal however brings surprising dimensions to a character that could have easily just been a puppy dog boy. Heath ledger on the other hand portrays an emotionally repressed man, both untied and liberated by his feelings, brilliantly.
Although the movie addresses issues that are taboo, tells a tale of love, frustrations and pressures of a society, it is not necessarily an astounding movie. It’s not a mass entertainer, but then again, it really wasn’t serving the purpose to entertain; it was conveying a message of sorts, of telling a great story!
