Good Film...Not the Best for 2005

Rating: 6/10 (10 January 2006)

This is a well-structured, simple story about two cowboys that engaged in a love affair that started during a job they had done together sheep-herding. After the job, the two lovers are forced back into their own individual lives, both in 1960's Midwest America, where their love affair would never be accepted. They had to pretend to be into their wives and have children while the true love they had was in each other, far away. Things become more complicated for one of the characters when his wife finds out about his intimacy with the other man.
Brokeback explores homosexuality in ways never seen before "by me" on film. However, it's not as daring as people make it sound in it's exploration. In fact, I think it's overrated in that aspect. There have been dozens of Foreign films that took stabs at the subject matter of homosexuality. Most recently was "Bad Education," which was a truly complex, multi-layered story that held no bars in it's telling. "Bad" had not only explored the prevalence of homosexuality, it also focused on the issues of the catholic church and the accusations against it involving sexual abuse against children.
Ang Lee does a great job directing this film. The cinematography was first rate, with epic views of the mountains in Middle America. Lee did lose points from me in some moments when the film started to feel pretentious.
Also, there were some holes in the screenplay. There were some things that were totally unclear, which was also very vital to the climax of this story (I can't give it away). At the end, I felt I had missed something that had me scratching my head, baffled. I also had trouble believing the beat for beat actions of Ledger's character when he related with his wife. It seemed absurd to believe that any man, straight or gay, would make himself look so obvious in his involvement in an extramarital affair. There were moments that even sunk to the level of "Soap Opera" as the truth about Ledger's character comes to light more and more. I never believed Jake's wife in the film. She seemed so cold and withdrawn, makes me question her involvement with what happens in the end because she didn't tell the truth about it when we find out. And if there was any involvement on her behalf, then why were we robbed of experiencing the progression of her change from loyalty to betrayal against Jake? The movie didn't fully work for me. I think Hollywood is unsure about the best film they had produced last year because there were too many bad and mediocre films. The critics are just happy to see a film that deal with homosexuality in such an intimate, realistic way that you rarely see from "American" films, straying away from stereotype and dealing with deeper issues of self-hate, self-deception and self-betrayal. It's not bold and nothing about it, for me, was memorable. Some originality in American Cinema? Yes (never seen gay cowboys on screen for so long in one film). Great performances? Absolutely. Best film of the year. No way.