Overall Rating
  Awesome: 61.64%
Worth A Look: 13.36%
Average: 12.93%
Pretty Bad: 5.17%
Total Crap: 6.9%
17 reviews, 130 user ratings
|
|
| Brokeback Mountain |
by MP Bartley
"Broken-Backed Drama."
|
If, as expected, Brokeback Mountain truimphs at the Oscars in a few weeks time, it'll be seen as a victory for liberalism as an openly gay drama in Hollywood receives massive critical acclaim. They key to this success is the fact that Ang Lee hasn't resorted to sensationalism or attention-grabbing headlines, he's told this story in a poignant, understated manner. The trouble is, that it's too understated for its own good.Jack (Jake Gyllenhall) and Ennis (Heath Ledger) are two unemployed ranchers who manage to find work on Brokeback mountain, in Wyoming, doing some ranching and sheep handling. Jack is the more forward out of the two, happy to keep the conversation going, while teasing out details from the more introspective Ennis. One particularly cold night however, they resort to sharing the tent to keep warm, when in an unexpected fit of passion, they begin to kiss and have sex. Thus begins a love affair not even halted when both marry and have children. Instead, it continues over the next two decades, as they meet monthly to have their illicit trysts on Brokeback.
For all the sniggers and rumours that accompanied the initial opening and release of 'Brokeback Mountain' Lee has made a film that is nowhere near as graphic as first thought. He isn't interested in the physical details of the relationship, but the feelings and emotions instead. However, in making a film where the emotions are so buttoned down and repressed, Lee forgets that that's all well and good, as long as there's a release by the end. Making grand melodramatic statments throughout would have ruined the tone of the film, but there's not even the emotional climax that the film needs. Instead, we have Ennis struggle and fail to sum up his emotions at the end. Having watched him do this throughout the previous two hours however, means that instead of nodding with sympathy, we're asking "Well is he going to finish that sentence or not?". It even extends to a phone call where a very important development is related and reacted to in such an off-hand manner, it's like someone has called to cancel a shopping order.
The film is dramatically stunted in other ways too. Ennis states at the beginning that he's marrying his girl, Alma (Michelle Williams), when he returns home. When he does however, the couple look miserable already. Indeed, as the film progresses we realise that Ennis wants a stay at home wife, and would have probably strayed with someone else anyway. It would have been much more impactful if the love between Ennis and Jack had ruined what was destined to be a happy marriage for Ennis and Alma. This dramatic confusion is mirrored in Jack's marriage to Lureen (Anne Hathaway). We're never sure why they've married, although I think a good guess is that it was a shotgun marriage, as Lureen jumps Jack's bones the first chance she gets, with a baby the result the next time we see them. This leads to the best scene in the film, as Jack clashes with his father-in-law over a football match during dinner. It's just a shame that it lacks the right build up to explain just why this clash happens - it's never commented upon again.
Despite this, 'Brokeback Mountain' is certainly not a bad film. The opening 25 minutes are wonderful, capturing the dull details of a ranchers life, while Lee frames it against the majestic beauty of Wyoming - although, in fairness, how could anyone screw that up? It's nature, Steven Sommers could probably keep it looking beautiful.
Gyllenhall is as great as we'd predict and he and Heath make their relationship never less than believable, even if we never truly believe that there's a burning love deep within these men. It's Ledger however, gaining the plaudits, and rightly so, proving all his naysayers wrong. In the less showy role, Ledger doesn't have much to say, yet says it all, with his guarded eyes and awkward body language and speech suggesting a man with a painful well of sadness within him. It's thanks to Gyllenhall and Ledger that 'Brokeback Mountain' has an air of poignancy throughout, that draws you into the drama despite Lee's best efforts to neuter it.
Williams tries her best as Alma, but her character doesn't change from one scene to the next, while Hathaway is made to suffer under some truly ridiculous wigs to indicate the passage of time.
It's an irony that the film suffers as much as the main characters whenever it moves away from Brokeback mountain.Nowhere near a bad film, but also quite far from being a great film, it instead brings to mind a quote from an earlier Heath Ledger film: "I know you can be under whelmed, and you can be overwhelmed, but can you ever just be, like, whelmed?". Whelmed. That's exactly how I'd put it.
link directly to this review at https://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=12764&reviewer=293
originally posted: 01/17/06 21:18:39
![[printer]](/images/icon/printer.gif) printer-friendly format
|
OFFICIAL SELECTION: 2005 Toronto Film Festival For more in the 2005 Toronto Film Festival series, click here.
|
 |
USA
09-Dec-2005 (R)
DVD: 23-Jan-2007
UK
N/A
Australia
26-Jan-2006
|
|
Articles 
subscribe to this feed![[AllPosters.com]](/images/icon/ap.gif){kind=icon}
