angst does not equal depth

Rating: 1/10 (27 December 2005)

While the acting is superb and the filming is beautiful, this movie falls short before it even begins with a story that has no point. The point of a story is to have a beginning, middle, and end. The point of a movie is to take people where they've never been and share something with them. Perhaps there are people out there who have never felt hopelessness or depression, and maybe those people can learn something from this movie, but other than that I really don't feel this movie brings anything new to the viewer. The entire point of the movie seems to be "life is pointless and will never get better, no matter what." Angst does not equal depth. The characters angst quite a bit, but never do anything to improve their state in life. Instead of having obstacles and overcoming them, or at least TRYING to, they simply exist in a horrible depth of "poor and depressed" for the entire movie, and never pull out of that at all.
As someone that's read far too many badly written fan fiction and writings by angsty teens, I can assure you that angst does not automatically equal depth. ;) It never, ever does. I would expect more from Ang Lee than what I get out of fiction written by angsty emo 13 year old girls, but this movie falls into the same category as most slash fiction does, which is massively disappointing.
This movie was not sad or tragic, it was simply depressing. If you want to feel depressed and hopeless and leave the theater feeling as if nothing matters, then this is the movie for you. Otherwise I'd avoid it. Depression is a real part of life, and it is something that a lot of people can relate to, especially in a society where being outed and gay is practically a death sentence. However, a movie where nothing happens except the characters are depressed the entire time and nothing changes doesn't seem to have much point to me. I guess the main point of this review is "Wow, that was a downer."