Boring Movie

Rating: 4/10 (5 June 2012)

I didn't like Brokeback Mountain. Of course, many people reading that statement, without knowing anything else about me, are going to think, most likely, I didn't like it because I'm homophobic. Actually, since the main problem with the film is that it's freakin' boring, having more gay sex scenes and beefcake shots would undoubtedly have improved it. I don't agree with the other reviewers that "nothing happens in this film". It's about a man (Jake Gyllenhall) who's lust/love for another man (Heath Ledger) is largely unreciprocated and how the situation tears their families apart and makes them both miserable. How is this nothing? If this were a straight couple, would you call it insubstantial subject matter for a film? The problem is that it plays out way too slowly and, because of bad editing and shots in the conversation scenes that last too long there's a weird feeling of emotional separation from the characters. The second half of the film - where Ennis marries a woman and has kids and Jack gets a girlfriend who's also his business parter and this one-sided reciprocation of this ongoing love-lust of the two men ruins their relationships and makes them miserable - is more interesting and involving because it's probably what would have happened due to the societal values and bigotry of the time, and because the slow pacing serves this subject matter better since it all would have happened really slowly in real life and you can really feel Jack's frustration. Michelle Williams is probably the best actor in the film. Gyllenhall and Ledger both have a not-totally-convincing and slightly cutesy acting style (partly, but not mostly, the fault of the writing), but Williams totally embodies the part. She's a totally believable and recognizable type of naive young woman who would grow up in Wyoming at that time. A few people I know, mostly gay people, have mentioned that it's a big problem with the film that neither of them said "I love you" to each other. Well, maybe the connection was mostly physical lust and not love. That happens. Ennis was too emotionally shut-down and too influenced by the homophobia (I hate that word; "gay-hatred" or something like that would be better) of the time to consciously recognize the relationship was even partially about love and probably wouldn't have said it even if he did. It might have been better for the emotional impact of the film if Jack had said, "I love you" to Ennis, but either saying it or not would have been realistic. Some people said there's no chemistry between the two of them. So what? There are people in real life that you can't believe are together. Ledger's performance is overrated. He plays a person with limited emotional expression well, but like Billy Bob Thornton's Karl Childers, it's easier to play a part with limited emotional expression. Another problem is they don't visibly age in 15 years except for a little grey in the hair. I call it the Shawshank Syndrome. All in all, a movie with a good story badly paced and acted.